AMKRICAN FISHRIF.S SOCIKTV. 



fishing stations. They are all called boats, though many are of 

 a size that would render the term ship, or at least vessel, far 

 more applicable. They are mostly square and squat in rigging, 

 and somewhat tubby in build, and have an unmistakably fishy 

 appearance. Nautical terms are mingled with London street 

 vernacular; fresh mackerel competes in odor with pitch and 

 tar ; the tight-strained rigging cuts in dark indigo relief against 

 the pale blue sky; the whole is a confusion, slightly dirty, but 

 eminently picturesque; of ropes, spars, baskets, oakum, tarpau- 

 lin, fish, canvas trousers, osier baskets, loud voices, trampling 

 feet and ' perfumed gales,' not exactly from ' Araby the blest ' 

 but from the holds of the fishing craft." 



The method of handling and carrying the fish may strike the 

 author of " Twice Around the Clock" as one of "prodigious 

 celerity," but to an American familiar with steam appliances 

 and labor-saving machinery, it appears to be very tedious, 

 costly and old-fashioned, and in great contrast to systems seen 

 with us, where a vessel puts in, unloads, packs up and leaves the 

 wharf in two hours. 



Steam appliances have not been adopted at Billingsgate, 1 

 am informed, because the fish would be more rapidly brought to 

 the salesmen than they could be handled, and so the old system 

 is clung to, and porters with trunks on their heads approach the 

 salesman, stand in waiting, then deposit them only as rapidly as 

 they can be sold and again borne away. 



The salesman or auctioneer gets five per cent, on the sales 

 made. Many fish were formerly sold at " Dutch auction," where 

 the salesman names a high figure, then drops to a lower one, 

 and so on until a bid is made which is accepted, and the proced- 

 ure is gone through with de novo. No license is required to sell 

 fish by Dutch auction, and this method-is still in great favor in 

 many of the fishing ports. 



The Bummaree appears to be an individual essential to Bil- 

 lingsgate. 



Jonathan Bee, in his slang dictionary (" Lexicon Balatroni- 

 CLim,") published 1823, defines the bummaree to be the man who 

 at Billingsgate takes the place of the salesman, and generally 

 after 8 o'clock a. m., buys the last lot of lish. 



