CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



we are only able to obtain certain kinds of fish at 

 the time when they spawn, and at that time all 

 the fat-forming elements of the animal are diverted 

 to the development of the milt or roe. 



The preceding table is applicable to the British 

 markets, and will enable purchasers to see at a 

 glance what fish are in season and what kind are 

 out of season, during every month of the year ; 

 and also which kinds are best for immediate use. 



The fishes which contribute most largely to 

 our commissariat are the herring, cod, haddock, 

 whiting, salmon, sole, turbot, and other flat-fish, 

 one or other of which is in season on some part 

 of the British or Irish coast all the year round ; 

 this is especially the case with regard to flat-fish, 

 whilst the salmon and the herring can only be 

 obtained during certain months of the year; but 

 both of these are of great value, and the herring 

 (also the sprat and mackerel) being at times 

 exceedingly plentiful, may on such occasions be 

 bought cheap, forming an excellent variety in the 

 food of the people. The salmon being a valuable 

 proprietary fish, is, on the average of the period 

 during which it is in season, much dearer than 

 butcher-meat, seldom costing less than one shil- 

 ling and sixpence per pound-weight, while at 

 certain times it is very much dearer, as much as 

 half a guinea a pound-weight being paid in the 

 early part of the year. It is much to be regretted 

 that fish, when they become reduced in price, are 

 only cheap at most uncertain times, and conse- 

 quently no reliance can be placed on a continuous 

 supply being brought to market as an auxiliary 

 article of food. The railways now so equalise our 

 supplies, by running each day's catch with great 

 celerity into distant inland towns, as to forbid the 

 idea of fish ever again being cheap, in the old 

 sense of the word. The supply is evidently more 

 limited than the public are willing to believe : 

 at anyrate, with large additions to the varied 

 machinery of capture, our fish supplies do not 

 come up to the daily demand, except on the occa- 

 sion of an extraordinary catch, when the market 

 is glutted. This will be better seen from the 

 economic details which we are able to furnish 

 with regard to the different branches of the British 

 fisheries. 



I. THE WHITE-FISH FISHERIES. 



Under this term is included not only the fishery 

 of the common cod, but that of the haddock, whit- 

 ing, ling, hake, torsk, and others all remarkable 

 for their excellence of flesh, which is white and 

 firm, separates readily into flakes, is agreeable to 

 the taste, and very wholesome. They belong to 

 the soft-firmed fishes, and constitute a useful family 

 of great extent, known as the Gadidce, found in 

 almost every sea, and living for the most part in 

 cold or temperate climates. From their size, and 

 tendency to congregate in particular localities, as 

 well as from the value of their flesh, they are of 

 great importance to man. As our space will not 

 permit us to notice individually the members of 

 this extensive family, we shall direct attention 

 chiefly to the cod, as the head and representative 

 premising that the modes of capture, curing, 

 and preparation, are much the same as regards 

 the other members of the family ; the natural 

 habits of the other families are also similar to 

 those of the cod. 



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The great seat of the cod-fishery is at New- 

 foundland and other places on the coasts of North 

 America, and the trade there is mostly in the 

 hands of the French and Americans. Vast 

 quantities of this fish are caught, and are 

 constantly imported into this country dried or 

 cured, constituting a well-known article of com- 

 merce. Indeed, so great has become the drain 

 on the cod-banks of Newfoundland, that the 

 supply is, year by year, becoming perceptibly less. 

 In Great Britain, the chief seat of the cod and 

 ling fishery is in the north of Scotland, although 

 supplies are also obtained from the coast of Ire- 

 land, and likewise on some parts of the English 

 coast. The cod-fish is very voracious ; a favour- 

 able circumstance for the fishermen, who expe- 

 rience little difficulty in taking them with almost 

 any bait, whenever a favourable locality is found. 

 As these fish generally inhabit deep water 

 from twenty-five to forty, and even fifty fathoms 

 and feed near the ground on various small fish, 

 worms, Crustacea, and testacea, their capture 

 is only attempted with lines and hooks. The 

 most common mode is by deep-sea lines, called 

 bulters on the Cornish coast : these are long lines, 

 with hooks fastened at regular distances along 

 their whole length, by shorter and smaller cords 

 called snoods. The snoods are six feet long each, 

 and placed on the long line twelve feet from each 

 other, to prevent the hooks from becoming en- 

 tangled. The line has an anchor or grapple and 

 a buoy at each end ; it is laid, or shot, across the 

 direction of the tide, and after being left for about 

 six hours, it is hauled up for examination. 



The fishermen, when not engaged in shooting, 

 hauling, or rebaiting the lines, fish with hand-lines, 

 armed with two hooks, kept apart by a strong 

 piece of wire. Each fisherman manages two lines, 

 holding one line in each hand ; a heavy weight is 

 attached to the lower end of the line, not far from 

 the hooks, to keep the bait near the ground. 



Vessels sail as far as Davis' Strait and to the 

 Faroe Islands for fresh cod, and quantities are 

 carried alive in welled smacks to London. Boats 

 of this kind, for preserving alive the fish taken at 

 sea, came into use in this country early in the last 

 century. They are said to have been first built at 

 Harwich, in 1712, by an ancestor of the late Mr 

 Saunders of Billingsgate; and it is remarkable 

 that some of them were engaged in conveying 

 troops at the time of the rebellion of 1715. The 

 store-boats remain in the salt-water, and the fish 

 are sent to London and other cities by railway 

 train as they are required. 



A considerable number of the cod which are 

 caught on our shores are brought to market as 

 cured fish, and the process of curing is as follows : 

 The fish are usually killed and cleaned as soon as 

 taken. When brought on shore, they are opened 

 up from head to tail, part of the backbone being 

 cut out. They are then carefully washed and 

 purified from blood by copious libations of clean 

 salt-water. Being drained, which is the next pro- 

 cess, they are laid down in a long vat, in alternate 

 rows of fish and salt, under heavy weights, to keep 

 them within the action of the pickle. After a 

 time, they are taken out of the vat, again washed 

 and brushed, and gathered into little heaps to 

 drain. This being effected, they are spread out 

 individually to pine by exposure to the sun and 

 air. Next, they are built into heaps called steeples, 



