General Introduction. j 



during the night's fishing could not have exceeded an area 

 of 50 acres. 



Large as is the present supply of fish, and considerable 

 the refuse of our fisheries as manure, much greater things 

 are yet to be accomplished in this way, in both our supply 

 of food, and of fertilizers for our land. The increasing 

 scarcity and high price of butcher's meat leaves no doubt 

 that a great field is open for the application of increased 

 capital and skill to our sea-fisheries. Though the supply 

 of fish to Billingsgate is constantly increasing, it fails to 

 keep pace with the demand. The well-known fishing 

 grounds of the North Sea are yet only partially fished. 

 The Dogger Bank, which has an area of several hundred 

 square miles, and is most prolific of fish, is to a great 

 extent unworked by the trawlers, and new grounds are still 

 being discovered where fish are found in great abundance. 

 Between England and the continent the average depth of 

 the German Ocean is 90 feet. One-fifth of it is occupied 

 by banks, which are always being added to by the muddy 

 deposits of the rivers of both countries. In extent they 

 are equal to the superficial area of Ireland. To these 

 banks the animals of the ocean chiefly resort, and this 

 great and prolific field is free to the industry of all. 



It was stated by a recent writer in Blackwoods Maga- ^ 

 zine that no department of British industry has received 

 such a remarkable impulse from railways as the sea- 

 fisheries of the United Kingdom. They have, in fact, 

 completely revolutionized it. Before the Eastern Counties 

 Railway was constructed, the transport of fish from Yar- 

 mouth to London was effected by light vans drawn by 

 post-horses, and the quantity amounted to about 2000 tons 

 a year. Nearly double that quantity is now conveyed to 

 London and the great manufacturing towns in the course 



