264 FIELD AND FERN. 



There were nearly seven hundred salmon and 

 grilse, the produce of all his stations, in Mr. Speedie's 

 fish-house, but he has had as many as a thousand odd. 

 They are as bright as silver when they are fresh run 

 from the sea after a spate, but as the season advances 

 they get more chameleon-like, and take the colour of 

 the stones or gravel where they lie. Before the rail- 

 road days, they used to go by the steamers from 

 Dundee; but now the fish train leaves Perth each day 

 at two o'clock, and reaches London at four in the 

 morning. The consignors of course pay the carriage 

 to London, and are charged 5 per cent, commission on 

 sales. Mr. Groves is one of the largest London buyers 

 of Tay fish, and Edinburgh and Glasgow do a great 

 business as well. Middle men also purchase them 

 in London, to repack and send on to France. They 

 leave Perth in 2001b. boxes, with 60 or 701b. weight 

 of ice upon the top of them ; and Mr. Speedie, who 

 has sent off forty-four boxes a day at times, uses no 

 less than 700 tons of rough ice in the season. With- 

 out ice they will keep pretty well for two days, and 

 then they begin to go rapidly at the gall ; but 

 covered up in an ice-house they will be as good as 

 ever at the end of a fortnight. In spring the heavy 

 salmon of 201bs. and upwards sell best, and fetch 6d. 

 a pound more, as the west-end parties are larger, and 

 better cuts are required ; and by the end of June the 

 middlesized get the run. Prices are seldom the same 

 for two successive seasons. In 1863 and '54 (the 

 cholera year) they began at 3s. a pound, and went 



