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boat, and the fishing boat returns to the fishing ground ; 

 and if large, they proceed to the inner harbour (losing the 

 following night's fishing) to unload their silvery freight on 

 board hulks (there being no pier), which serve as quayage 

 and ice stores for the merchants. Here they are packed 

 in boxes and iced, and again transferred to steamers or 

 steam carriers, which take them to Milford, and thence by 

 rail to the markets of London, Birmingham, &c. This 

 brief sketch of what occurs between the time the fish is 

 caught and when it is delivered at the central market for 

 consumption, forms the chiefest portion of my essay, and I 

 will divide it in four parts— ist. The improvements that 

 are possible in bringing the fish from the fishing ground. 

 2nd. Improvements in steam carriers. 3rd. The cost of ice, 

 freights, railway rates, &c., and how to lessen them ; and, 

 4th. The necessity for proper fishery harbour accommoda- 

 tion. 



It is easy to point out how improvements may be made 

 in certain things, but the improvements are not always 

 practicable. I hope I shall not deal in impossibilities ; 

 and although in the matter of mackerel fishing the first 

 suggestion I make is an innovation, I believe it nevertheless 

 to be decidedly practicable and advantageous. 



Namely, if it sometimes, as it does, takes thirty to forty 

 hours to sail from the fishing ground to harbour, thus 

 making the fish (what is called) " over day," or stale fish, 

 why not employ small steam fishing boats .'' The usual 

 registered tonnage of a mackerel boat being thirty tons, 

 the machinery necessary to propel it by steam would need 

 an increase in the size, and raise or enlarge it to say forty- 

 five tons, or even more. The price of a first-class, well- 

 finished mackerel boat is about £600 ; double that amount, 

 or a little more, ought to procure such a steam-boat as I 



