384 EXAMINATION OF THE PRESENT STATE 
The fact is that the fund available for the collection of fishery 
returns is only £700, and there are 156 collecting stations. I have 
not the least idea what proportion of the above sum is assigned to 
each station, but it cannot in the nature of things be otherwise than 
insignificant in view of the work to be done. The method of 
collecting the statistics appears to be left entirely to the discretion of 
the collector. At one port it has been said that the return is merely 
an estimate of eye. I fancy I am betraying no secrets when I say 
that at Grimsby the statistician bases his estimate mainly on infor- 
mation furnished by the Railway Company, so that its accuracy 
depends on the correctness of deductions made for weight of packing 
materials, additions for difference in condition of fish, home con- 
sumption, &c. 
Now the fish arrives at the pontoon either whole (“live ’’) or 
eutted ; it may leave the town in almost any condition. It may be 
sent off in statu quo, or may be cleaned, beheaded, boned ; only a 
small part of it may be worth transmission. It may be wet or dried, 
pickled or smoked ; it may come in as a codling, and, or I am much 
mistaken, go out as a “ Finnon ”’ haddock !—be caught as the head 
of a catfish and the tail of a monk, and go out as the cheek muscles 
of a skate! The last instance, however, would not affect the 
correctness of the existing return, as the delicacies in question are 
assigned to the conglomerate column previously alluded to. 
The system will be admitted, I think, to furnish quite adequate 
opportunities of error, even if the emoluments were sufficient to 
allow of one man’s devoting his whole attention to the production of 
an accurate return, which I am far from supposing to be the case. 
Accuracy in returns, I imagine, can only be ensured by counting 
the quantity of fish landed on the pontoon, and as the quantity is very 
large and the time during which the fish are undisturbed is but short, 
this duty could certainly not be satisfactorily undertaken by one man 
alone, even were his attention free from any private business of his own. 
This system would permit of the complete discrimination between line 
and trawl fish, and between fish from the North Sea and those taken 
at Iceland, Farde, &c. According to the experience of the statis- 
ticilans, a certain amount of discrimination would be possible even 
between fish from different parts of the North Sea ; at all events it 
would be possible in great measure, from the peculiarities of coloura- 
tion in the flat-fish, to check the accuracy of answers which might 
be given to inquiries as to place of capture, and of course there 
would be no longer any difficulty in discriminating between large 
and small fish. Statistics dealing merely with weight, without 
regard to size, are altogether misleading. There is no difference in 
the weight of a box of fair average-sized plaice and a box of small 
