320 OPINION OF A SALESMAN. [CHAP. rn. 



not having been connected with that branch of the trade, but 

 after a remark or two on the information received by Mr. 

 Fenwick, and which is conveyed in your columns from 

 certain gentlemen professing to have a knowledge of the trade, 

 I will give you my information as briefly as possible. The 

 fact is this it never will be possible to catch what we con- 

 sider trawl-fish in sufficient quantities to meet the demand 

 but by the trawl, the principal kinds being turbot, brill, soles, 

 and plaice. A small quantity may be taken by other means, 

 but more by accident than otherwise. As for trawl-fish being 

 mutilated and putrid before landing, how does it happen that 

 so many spotless and pure fish, out of the above kinds, are 

 not only sold in London but all over the country, and exhibited 

 on the tables both of rich and poor? Yourself and every 

 nobleman can speak on this point ; and when informed that 

 they are all caught by the trawl (a fact undeniable), you will 

 consider it wrong on the part of any one to mislead the public 

 on a matter of so much importance. Advise him to fathom 

 the secrets of the ocean, and discover a better mode to obtain 

 them." 



A great deal of obloquy has been thrown on the trawl, 

 because it hashes the fish ; but the destruction of young fish 

 that is, fish unfit for human food because of their being 

 young is not peculiar to the trawl. When the lines are 

 thrown out for cod the fishermen cannot command that only 

 full-grown fish are to seize upon the bait : the tender codling, 

 the unfledged haddock, the greedy mackerel will bite the con- 

 sequence being that thousands of sea-fish are annually killed 

 that are unfit for food, and that have never had an oppor- 

 tunity of adding to their kind. But this mischance is inciden- 

 tal to all our fisheries, no matter what the engine of capture 

 may be, whether net or line. Look how we slaughter our 

 grilses, without giving them the opportunity of breeding ! The 

 herring-fishing is a notable example of this mode of doing 



