y« INTRODUCTION. 



of one day, and sold here before it has been twenty- 

 four hours out of the water. It is conveyed from 

 the coast in carts to Hull, a distance of thirty-six 

 miles, and reaches that town in time to be for- 

 warded, by railway, at six o'clock the following 

 morning to Manchester, reaching it about noon. 

 The Company's shop was opened on Saturday last, 

 about three in the afternoon, with the supply of 

 nineteen baskets, altogether 3192 lbs. of fish. The 

 price at which the fish was sold, without distinc- 

 tion, was two shillings a stone, not quite a penny 

 three-farthings a pound. The poorer classes flocked 

 to the shop in such numbers as completely to 

 obstruct for a time the foot-path, and such was the 

 demand, that the whole was disposed of in one hour 

 and three-quarters ; and it became necessary to 

 shut the shop, as the most effectual way of getting 

 rid of the hundreds of disappointed applicants. On 

 Monday morning the supply was all disposed of in 

 an hour and a quarter. On Tuesday the supply 

 consisted of 2688 lbs., and was all sold in less 

 than three hours. The fish now supplied consists 

 of Codling, Haddock, Plaice, and Skate ; the Cod is 

 of very fine quality, and affords a very cheap food." 

 So much for fresh fish. As for salted or corned, 

 again, the experience of the Committee already 

 alluded to is very striking. It contracted for 200 

 tons of corned cod, caught and cured on our own 

 coasts, and also for 400,000 coined herrings. The 

 former was supplied to the distressed manufacturers 

 of Sheffield at two-pence halfpenny a pound, and the 



