SCOTCH SHY FISH-EATERS. 89 



which, to a more limited yet most appreciable extent, 

 may also be found in our numerous lakes and rivers ; if 

 diminished ability, day by day, to fill our flesh-pots with 

 the wonted supply of butcher-meat send the public, with 

 ravenous appetite, to the perusal of our piscicultural 

 papers, we shall benevolently rejoice. And the public, 

 that omnivorous monster with its millions of stomachs, 

 shall share in our joy, and be comforted by knowing 

 that though the glories of Smithfield should depart in 

 consequence of neither bullock, sheep, nor swine being 

 despatched thither from any part of Scotland, yet Lon- 

 don need not pine with hunger, nor famine look out of 

 the eyes of those dwelling in " the granite city," be- 

 cause of the disappearance of the proverbial " cauld kail 

 in Aberdeen." 



Seriously speaking, we shall reckon it a matter for 

 hearty congratulation if the unusually high price of 

 butcher-meat shall make our Scottish people more fami- 

 liar with the excellency of a fish diet. The circum- 

 stances of the present rise in the price of beef and 

 mutton, and of the unusually abundant supply of fish, 

 may for a time lead to a greater consumption of the lat- 

 ter species of food. But, we fear, we shall soon relapse 

 into our old non-fish-eating ways, and continue to ex- 

 hibit to the world the singular phenomenon of a great 

 maritime nation, possessors of numerous and valuable 

 fisheries, depressed by vast numbers of the population 

 living only a few degrees above starvation, because 

 they have not been stimulated to put forth their hands 

 and avail themselves of the easily-attained aliment 

 stored up in the bounteous reservoirs of the earth-en- 

 circling sea. The rich take an interest in salmon as a 

 dainty for the table, or as affording sport during their 

 residence in the country ; commercial companies have 

 persecuted the whale to the farthest regions of the 

 polar sea ; cod and herring innumerable are constantly 

 being circumvented by foul means as well as fair still 

 the fact remains that the resources of our fisheries are 



