NORTH SEA INVESTIGATIONS. 139 
cheap fresh fish in our own country is a genuine one, it is surely 
possible to place these fish, which only cost the buyer something less 
than a shilling a stone, before the consumer at a price at which the 
latter would not complain, and which would yet leave to the former, 
and also to the fishmonger, a decent margin of profit. There seems 
no difficulty in disposing of undersized fish, of which the quality is 
certainly not better. 
As to the haddock, I am informed that they are too large for 
smoking, for this reason,—that it is impossible to place a smoked 
haddock of that size on the market for less than sixpence (though it 
may be remarked that it only cost the curer about a penny when 
fresh) ; and that the consumer, who for the most part belongs to the 
poorer classes, has usually only a penny or twopence to spend, for 
which sum he can obtain a small cured haddock. The retailers will 
not cut up the fish, because it spoils the appearance and lowers the 
price. Iam told that most of the Iceland haddock brought here in 
1892 were split, drysalted, and exported, but that the profits were 
infinitesimal. 
In the fresh condition, available, as they were in 1892 and will 
probably be in most future years, only in the summer, Iceland 
haddock have to contend in the market with the immense supply of 
herrings prevalent during that season. There is no doubt that they 
would sell splendidly in the winter, and even later in the autumn I 
am told there would be a good market for them in Rotterdam. 
Line-caught fish suffer from the same competition, and I have seen 
285 from 21 to 30 inches in length sold on the 13th September for 
twenty-five shillings, the seller informing me that he could confi- 
dently reckon on getting a shilling each for such fish a month later. 
For myself I cannot but think that they could be placed on the 
market in the fresh condition at a price at which they might 
compete favorably with the herring; and the only conclusion I can 
form on the whole matter is that the producer and consumer would 
find it to their mutual advantage to be brought into closer relation- 
ships. 
Though not to any great extent a product of the trawl fishery, 
there is another northern species to which I would like to advert 
here briefly, viz. the tusk (Brosmius brosme). Great numbers of 
tusk are caught by our liners on the Faroe grounds all the year 
round, and on the Iceland grounds during the time they are worked,* 
but the fish are seldom brought ashore except in the winter, as that 
is the only time when they command a sufficiently high price to make 
it worth the fisherman’s while. Nevertheless the tusk experiences 
no immunity in the summer, being the unfortunate possessor of a 
* JT am told that in these latitudes tusk come into quite shallow water. 
NEW SERIES.—VOL, III, NO. Il. 11 
