INTRODUCTORY. 13 



inland, but thousands of tons of plaice and haddocks, of 

 which the trawlers appear to meet with an inexhaustible 

 supply in the North Sea, find a ready market at a 

 moderate price in the manufacturing districts, where 

 not many years ago they were almost unheard of. 



One of the unexpected results of railway extension 

 has been to greatly diminish the supply of fish to the 

 inhabitants of coast towns. When the proceeds of a 

 day's fishing could only be disposed of within a com- 

 paratively short distance of home, fish was a common 

 article of food with all classes in the place. They were 

 the nearest and most desirable customers, and had their 

 turn first. But now the facilities for transport and the 

 demand at inland markets, as well as from the in- 

 satiable appetite of London, have made a fishing station 

 one of the last places in which the consumer will find 

 his wants provided for, unless, as is frequently the case, 

 the local fishmonger be supplied from London or some 

 other large market. The dearness and scarcity of fish 

 are consequently matters of common complaint by 

 people on the coast ; and the conclusion is often arrived 

 at that the fish have been destroyed or driven away, 

 and the fisheries are on the high road to ruin. A little 

 investigation of the subject, however, would in most 

 cases lead to the discovery that since the time when 

 fish was cheap and abundant in the local market, the 

 number of fishing boats and fishermen had been gradu- 

 ally increasing at the place, and the fish traffic from 

 the nearest railway station becoming annually more 

 developed. 



While making systematic inquiries all round the 

 coast a few years ago, preparatory to the active work 

 of the Royal Commissioners, we generally had reason 

 to consider it a hopeful sign when we were told by the 



