218 THE SALMON. 



only of late Ijeen Ijrouglit witliiu reach of tlie dwellers 

 in the interior. It would seem, indeed, as if a natural 

 appetite had acquired additional strength from long and 

 compulsory disuse. One effect, of course, is an equaliza- 

 tion of price, under which the chief gainers have been 

 the better-off people of the interior, and the chief losers 

 the poor people of the towns near the coast. Formerly, 

 sea-fish may be said to have been unattainable either by 

 the middle or the poorer classes in the interior, but 

 obtainable even by the poor classes near the sea. Now, 

 by the cheapness and quickness of carriage, the article 

 has in the interior been brought within reach of the 

 middle classes, but, by another part of the same opera- 

 tion, has, in the coast districts, been raised above the 

 reach of many or most of the poor. Further, in com- 

 parison with this extension of the market, there has been 

 no adec^uate effort to increase the supply ; and it is to 

 be feared that such efforts as have been made have been 

 rather in the way of more severely fishing the old ground 

 than of finding or using new grounds. It must be ad- 

 mitted that there are considerable difficulties as to a more 

 effective and systematic working of the sea-fisheries — 

 such as the employment being mainly that of a peculiar 

 people, not apt at new methods, not much available to 

 capital and organization, and not admitting of any great 

 increase in numbers ; also, our comparative ignorance of 

 the habits and habitats of sea-fish, and the impractica- 

 bility of much care or control over them. Still, it is 

 matter of surprise that, in this country, with capital so 

 often in want of outlets and so often running desperate 

 risks, something more should not have been and is not 



