FRESH AND SALT. 205 



-example, becomes a trawler, and scours the North Sea in the 

 teeth of the winter weather. Every available inch of space 

 below decks is required for stowage, and there is scarcely 

 room for comfort. The trawlers remain on their distant 

 fishing grounds for weeks together, fast cutters visiting them 

 daily to convey the fish to shore ; and many a fisherman is 

 washed overboard during the transfer of the fish to the 

 carrier smack. 



The Seabird has heels this morning as she heads for land. 

 Each added sail causes her to throb with delight ; the crew, 

 after their long spell of toil, are light-hearted too, and even 

 the forlorn object who sat on the sail abaft the tiller handle last 

 night shares in the prevailing gaiety. " Homeward bound " 

 after all is a better tune than " Nightfall on the sea." There 

 must be no stoppage till the Seabird ranges alongside Yar- 

 mouth fish wharf; the herrings must be sold at Billingsgate 

 before the town is fairly astir to-morrow morning, and the 

 Seabird to-night must once more shoot her nets a score of 

 miles at sea. At the mouth of the river a tug answers our 

 signal ; takes two other new arrivals in tow, and drags us 

 with a rush past Gorleston on the one side and South Denes 

 on the other, to the wharf. 



Here the well-known scenes are repeated. The fish are 

 taken away in " swills," placed on the wharf, and sold by 

 auction. The market is somewhat glutted to-day, and it is 

 only after a remonstrance from the salesman that the herrings 

 are disposed of at five guineas per last. Prices are very 

 fluctuating in this bustling market ; in the early part of the 

 season when fish were scarce a small cargo was sold at 

 ^40 the last ; not many weeks since it was impossible to 

 .coax the buyers into giving more than 2 53. Only this 



