600 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



fisb, but also on the inferior kinds, which alone are within the reach of 

 the poorer classes. 



If, with this deplorable condition of the Austrian fish-trade, one com- 

 pares the vast proportions of the London wholesale fish-market in Bil- 

 lingsgate, as graphically described by Beta, the enormous difference 

 between neglected fisheries and those which are protected by suitable 

 laws, and carried on with a spirit of enterprise, is placed in bold relief. 

 "A large fleet of fishing- vessels, carrying a greater supply of fish for one 

 day than Germany draws from the inexhaustible harvest-field of the sea, 

 the lakes, and rivers during a whole year, supplies every night the daily 

 demand for fish of the three-million city. While half a century ago 

 fifty fishermen supplied London with fish, a fleet of a thousand vessels 

 scarcely suffices in our day. The daily supply of fish is bought by the 

 wholesale dealers ; and the finny inhabitants of the sea, as well as of 

 lakes and rivers, are offered for sale in every imaginable shape, in heaps, 

 and boxes, smoked, salted, and fresh, in barrels, baskets, bundles, and 

 kegs, by the hundred-weight and by the million. A magnificent market- 

 hall, with clean and airy apartments of every size, tempts even the 

 finest gentlemen to buy and eat on the spot marine delicacies of every 

 kind, while in other places the poorer classes buy their daily supply. 

 The inferior kinds of fish, such as herring, eels, &c, are sold in 'fisher- 

 hundreds,' at 140 fish, in quantities of 20 pounds, or by the bushel, to 

 the retail dealers. The more aristocratic fish, such as salmon and 

 salmon-trout, which in summer reach London by railroad, packed in ice 

 in barrels and boxes, are sold by the pound." 



According to a report by District- Judge Friedel,in Circular No., 1 of 

 the Deutsche Fisherei-verein for 1872, on the English fisheries, the 

 city of London consumed, in 1870, 400,000,000 pounds of meat and 

 450,000,000 pounds of fish and shell-fish. 



As a proof of the great number of fish brought to the London fish- 

 market and the strict regulations of the fish-trade, it may be mentioned 

 here that during the month of April, 1870, the officers of the London 

 Fishmongers' Society condemned 51,877 fish, 340 bushels of shell-fish, 

 and 138 gallons of crabs, lobsters, and crawfish, weighing in all 56,439i 

 pounds avoirdupois. (Circular No. 4,]1870, of the Deutsche Fisherei-verein, 

 p. 21.) 



It must be acknowledged that the better organization of the hitherto 

 much neglected fish-trade in our larger cities would be the best means 

 of reviving our fisheries. 



In some other respects our Austrian fish-markets deserve the sharp 

 criticism which Beta passes on those of interior Germany. Everywhere 

 fish are offered for sale either half-dead on account of bad water, or 

 sick, of an insipid flavor, and expensive, while they might be had much 

 healthier, fresher, and finer flavored if, immediately after having been 

 caught, they were killed by an incision between the brain and the spine, 

 and were packed in some moist substance, and during summer in ice. 



