CHAPTER II. 



FISH COMMEECE. 



Early Fisli Commerce Sale of Fresli-water Fish Cured Fish Influence of 

 Rapid Transit on the Fisheries Fish-ponds The Logan Pond Ancient 

 Fishing Industries The Dutch Herring Fishing Comacchio the Art of 

 Breeding Eels Progress of Fishing in Scotland A Scottish Buss New- 

 foundland Fisheries The Greenland Whale Fishing Speciality of dif- 

 ferent Fishing Towns The General Sea Fisheries of France French Fish 

 Commerce Statistics othe British Fisheries. 



nnHEEE was a time when man only killed the denizens of 

 JL the deep in order to supply his own immediate wants, 

 and it is very much to be regretted, in the face of the exten- 

 sive fish commerce now carried on, that no reliable documents 

 exist from which to write a consecutive history of the rise 

 and progress of fishing. 



In the absence of precise information, it may be allowed 

 us to guess that even during the far back ages fish was es- 

 teemed as an article of diet, and formed an important contri- 

 bution to the food resources of such peoples as had access to 

 the sea, or who could obtain the finny inhabitants of the deep 

 by purchase or barter. In the Old and New Testaments, 

 and in various ancient profane histories, fish and fishing 

 are mentioned very frequently ; and in what may be called 

 modern times a few scattered dates, indicating the progress of 

 the sea fisheries, may, by the exercise of great industry and 

 research, be collected ; but these are not in any sense conse- 



