Cambridge Fish Market 109 



Market which is separated from the Herb Market by Butcher 

 Row is on Wednesdays and Fridays sufficiently stocked with 

 Fish from the neighbouring Fenns and sea fish from Lynn. 

 Fresh Salmon and Sturgeon is sometimes also brought to the 



Market and usually sold at about twelve pence the pound 



but on the chief market day there is seldom any fish to 



be had but Eels and Jacks, which are extraordinary cheap."' 

 Such was the Cambridge fish market in the days when the 

 navigation of the Cam was frequently stopped for some time 

 with the mass of boats and barges conveying merchandise to 

 the town, showing that there was still reason for the arms 

 of the town three ships with Neptune's horses as supporters. 

 Cambridgeshire and the Fen district is essentially the 

 home of the coarse fish. A line drawn from the Humber 

 to the Dorset coast roughly marks out their habitat and 

 separates them from their more stately brethren of Northern 

 and Western England the Salmonidae. No portion of this 

 triangular space contains such an abundance of fish as the 

 Fenland. A catch of bream in the Norfolk Broads is reckoned 

 by the stone. A take of eight or ten pike in one day by 

 a single rod is no rare occurrence. That fish should abound 

 in East Anglia is but natural. The vast system of drains, 

 cuts, and waterways, so numerous that the natural course 

 of the rivers has been almost obliterated, affords a home 

 and shelter for fish unequalled in England. On the other 

 hand, it must be remembered that the drainage system of 

 the Fens has been largely responsible, in all probability, for 

 drying up many of the smaller drains and channels and 

 leaving them completely without water during the summer. 

 Consequently there has been a certain depletion of fish. At 

 least, such is Mr Miller's theory in Fenland, and I am 

 disposed to agree with him, though I cannot accept as an 

 important destructive agent the admission of salt water into 

 the larger drains, which Mr Miller mentions as a cause of 

 injury to the fresh- water fish. On the whole the fishes of 

 Fenland enjoy comparative immunity from harm. There are 

 no large manufacturing towns on the banks of our East 



