OUR SEA FISHERIES. 201 



and Kent. The publicity of these letters has also 

 been the means, already, of adding some 1,000?. 

 sterling to the wealth of the community. A highly 

 respectable and extensive firm in London, seeing the 

 remarks about throwing the offal into the sea, wrote 

 to me stating that they would purchase 10,000 cwt. 

 of the roes of cod, and give as high as lls. per cwt, 

 if the fishermen would preserve them, to be used as 

 bait on the west coast of France. They had pre- 

 viously been supplied from Norway, and had been 

 paying annually to that country nearly 6,OOOZ. for 

 that which we were throwing away as an unsaleable 

 commodity. Parties in Grimsby have now willingly 

 come forward and agreed to supply them in future. 



" I would again, in behalf of the fishermen, beg 

 leave to call the attention of Government, through 

 your influential paper, to this little-known Eockall, 

 as buoys should be put upon the reef early in the 

 spring, and a large vessel might be sent to cruise on 

 that station for a season, to prevent casualties, or 

 until the currents and tides become thoroughly 

 known to the fishing-vessels. Surely it is as honour- 

 able and necessary to protect the large fleet that will 

 assemble there in the spring, from the hidden rocks 

 and the treacherous ocean as from any other enemy ! 

 I am, Sir, yours very truly, F. 'DAWSON, M.D. 



Brcmgh House, Westray, October 18, 1861." 



