CHAP, ii.] THE DISTRIBUTION OF FISH. 37 



tenants ; indeed, it cannot be said that it is yet safe, for every 

 tenant thinks it legitimate to kill all the fish he can see. 



The network of railways which now encircles the land has 

 conferred upon our inland towns, so far as fish is concerned, 

 all the advantages of the coast. For instance, the fishermen 

 of Prestonpans send more of their fish to Manchester than to 

 Edinburgh, which is only nine miles distant : indeed our most 

 landward cities are comparatively well supplied with fresli 

 fish and Crustacea, while at the seaside these delicacies are 

 not at all plentiful. The Newhaven fishwife is a common 

 visitant in many of our larger Scottish inland towns, being- 

 able by means of the railway to take a profitable journey ; 

 indeed, one consequence of the extension of our railways has 

 undoubtedly been to add enormously to the demand for sea 

 produce, and to excite the ingenuity of our seafaring popula- 

 tion to still greater cunning and industry in the capture of all 

 kinds of fish. In former years, when a large haul of fish was 

 taken there was no means of despatching them to a distance, 

 neither was there a resident population to consume what was 

 caught. Eailways not being then in existence, the conveyance 

 inland was too slow for a perishable commodity like fish, and 

 visitors to the seaside were also rarer than at present. The 

 want of a population to eat the fish no doubt aided the com- 

 fortable delusion of our supplies being inexhaustible. But it 

 is now an undoubted fact, that with railways branching out to 

 every pier and quay, our densely-populated inland towns are 

 better supplied with fish than the villages where they are 

 caught a result of that keen competition which has at length 

 become so noticeable where fish, oysters, or other sea delicacies 

 are concerned. The high prices now obtained form an induce- 

 ment to the fishermen to take from the water all they can get, 

 whether the fish be ripe for food or not. A practical fisher- 

 man, whom I have often consulted on these topics, says that 

 forty years ago the slow system of carriage was a sure pre- 



