6G OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS. [CHAP. n. 



pose of crab and lobster boiling. Some of the shops in the 

 neighbourhood have always on hand large stocks of all kinds 

 of dried fish, which are carried away in great waggons to the 

 railway stations for country distribution. About four o'clock 

 on a summer morning this grand piscatorial mart may be seen 

 in its full excitement the auctioneers bawling, the porters 

 rushing madly about, the hawkers also rushing madly about 

 seeking persons to join them in buying a lot, and so to divide 

 their speculations ; and all over is sprinkled the dripping sea- 

 water, and all around we feel that "ancient and fish -like 

 smell" which is the concomitant of such a place. 



No statistics of a reliable kind are published as to the total 

 annual value of the British fisheries. An annual account of 

 the Scottish herring-fishery is taken by commissioners and 

 officers appointed for that purpose ; which, along with a yearly 

 report of the Irish fisheries, is the only reliable annual docu- 

 ment on the subject that we possess, and the latest official 

 report of the commissioners will be found analysed in another 

 part of this volume. For any statistics of our white-fish 

 fisheries we are compelled to resort to second-hand sources of 

 information ; and, as is likely enough in the circumstances, we 

 do not, after all, get our curiosity properly gratified on these 

 important topics the progress and produce of the British 

 fisheries. As a proof of the difficulty of obtaining reliable 

 statistics of our sea-harvest, I am compelled to have recourse 

 to the quantities of all kinds of fish carried by the various 

 railways as an indication of what we are doing on the waters. 

 Large quantities of sea produce are still, however, carried by 

 water. The supplies brought inland by the various railways 

 are as follow: 



London and Brighton 5,174 tons. 



Great Western 2,885 



North British 8,303 



Carryforward 16,3 6 2 tons. 



