FISHERIES. 



will be so interfered with as speedily to render 

 them barren. 



It is only at Billingsgate, the great wholesale 

 fish-market of London, that a proper idea of the 

 trade in oysters and other shell-fish can be ob- 

 tained. A large portion of what Britain produces 

 is there brought into a focus for distribution in 

 London, and also for despatch to other places by 

 train. At one time, the whole fish-trade of the 

 great metropolis was centred at Billingsgate ; that 

 was at the period when fish of all kinds were 

 chiefly sea-borne : now that railway trains (run- 

 ning special) bring up the daily 'harvest of the 

 sea,' much of the produce is sent direct to the 

 retail dealers, so that no accurate statistics of the 

 fish-food of the period can be obtained. 



Lobsters reach London from the most distant 

 parts of the country from Ireland, Shetland, 

 Scotland, France, the Channel Islands, and Nor- 

 way. This shell-fish is now a chief luxury of the 

 table, being either served as sauce or salad. 

 Countless numbers of them are sold daily in the 

 London supper-houses, whilst a large supply is 

 constantly required by private families. One 

 dealer at Billingsgate turns over almost ^50,000 

 a year, chiefly in the lobster-trade. The lobster 

 is brought to market alive in vessels constructed 

 for the purpose, and quantities of them are kept 

 alive in stores or ponds, and also in boxes till 

 required. The market is now seldom glutted 

 with shell-fish, as a telegraphic message can 

 diminish or augment the supplies according to 

 the pulse of the market. It is needless to say 

 that the mortality incidental to crustacean com- 

 merce is very great, and that fact tends, of course, 

 to enhance the price of those animals that live to 

 reach the market. Lobsters are caught in ' pots,' 

 or traps, made of wicker-work. They are baited 

 with any kind of garbage the stronger-scented 

 the better and are then sunk in likely places of 

 the water, and left to take their chance of a victim ; 

 whilst the industrious proprietor goes off trying to 

 catch a few haddocks. On many parts of the 

 Scottish coasts, perforated boxes, containing 

 lobsters, may be seen floating, waiting for the 

 weekly visit of the steam-boat to take up the 

 cargo. Large supplies of this fine shell-fish are 

 obtained from the Orkney Islands and from the 

 coast of Sutherland. The value of the lobsters 

 fished in Scotland in 1884 was ,29,042. 



The natural history of the lobster is remarkable, 

 but need not be minutely detailed, as the following 

 brief sketch of the crab will serve for both : The 

 common edible crab is too well known to require 

 description. The most remarkable feature in its 

 economy, and which, indeed, is common to all 

 crustaceans, is the process of sloughing, or 

 moulting the shell at regular periods. As it is 

 obvious that the hard shell, when once per- 

 fected, cannot change with the growth of the 

 animal, it becomes necessary that it should be 

 shed entirely. When the season of shedding 

 arrives, the aquatic crabs generally seek the 

 sandy shores of creeks and rivers, and having 

 selected a place of rest, the change begins. The 

 body seems to swell ; the larger upper shell be- 

 gins to separate from the breast or corselet ; the 

 muscles of the limbs soften and contract, which 

 allows of their slipping from their cases ; the parts 

 about the head and antennas undergo a similar 

 change; and gradually the animal escapes from 



the crust, soft, helpless, and incapable of exertion 

 or resistance. In twenty or thirty hours, however, 

 a thin crust has again overspread its various parts 

 and members, and in the course of a few days it 

 is enabled to resume its wonted habits. During 

 the moulting season, as well as during the period 

 of spawning, crabs are uneatable ; at other times, 

 they are excellent On the rocky coasts they fre- 

 quent, they are either drawn at ebb-tide from the 

 holes and crevices, by means of an iron hook, or 

 they are fished for, in four or five fathoms water, 

 by traps or cages baited with garbage. Immense 

 numbers are annually consumed in all our sea- 

 ports. It has been calculated that the com- 

 missariat of London alone requires every year 

 about 3,000,000 of crabs, lobsters, and cray- 

 fish, besides countless quantities of whelks, peri- 

 winkles, and muscles. It may be mentioned 

 that from one of the Orkney Islands hundreds 

 of bags of periwinkles are, in the season, 

 sent weekly to London by the steam-boats from 

 Aberdeen. 



To obtain muscles for bait is a necessity of 

 fishery economy, and muscles are at present both 

 scarce and dear, the natural beds having become 

 exhausted from the increased quantity of bait 

 now required for the cod-fish and haddock lines. 

 Thirty or forty years ago, the number of hooks 

 attached to each line was only about the half 

 of what it is now, and, as a matter of course, 

 they only required half the quantity of bait 

 A considerable portion of each fisherman's 

 time is taken up in the search for muscles. 

 From some fishing-ports the men have to take 

 a two days' cruise in order to obtain a weetfs 

 supply of this prime necessity of a successful 

 fishing. 



It is surprising that the fishermen of the British 

 seas have not followed the plan of their French 

 brethren, who, on one place at least of the coast 

 of France (at Aiguillon, about four miles from 

 La Rochelle), cultivate most successfully a large 

 muscle-farm. The plan of cultivation adopted is 

 one accidentally discovered three hundred years 

 ago by a shipwrecked mariner. The spat or 

 young of the muscle floats to the shore from some 

 natural bed in the outer sea. It is then collected 

 on huge pillars of wood, to which it adheres. As 

 soon as the spat attains the dimensions of a small 

 bean, it is gathered in little quantities, tied into 

 a piece of netting or perforated canvas, and fixed 

 upon a kind of artificial hedge, which is called a 

 bouchot, where it is allowed to grow for a time. 

 Several removals or transplantations take place, 

 till, ultimately, the muscle finds itself almost on 

 dry land, when it is found to have grown to 

 marketable dimensions, and yields an excellent 

 return for the pains bestowed on its cultivation. 

 As much as one million francs have been derived 

 from the muscle bouchots of Aiguillon in a year. 

 There is no doubt that muscles might be exten- 

 sively cultivated in this country. The bouchot is 

 a very simple contrivance ; a few pieces of wood 

 driven into the muddy shore, and interlaced with 

 the branches of trees, afford an excellent hold- 

 ing-on place for the young muscles ; and as 

 they can be transplanted from one place to 

 another with the greatest ease, there is nothing 

 to prevent the laying down of a muscle-farm on 

 a hundred places of the coast of Great Britain 



and Ireland. 



m 



