CHAPTEE VII. 



THE WHITE-FISH FISHEKIES. 



Difficulty of obtaining Statistics of our White-Fish Fisheries Ignorance of 

 the Natural History of the White Fish " Finnan Haddies " The 

 Gadidse Family : the Cod, Whiting, etc. The Turbot and other Flat Fish 

 When Fish are in Season How the White-Fish Fisheries are carried 

 on The Cod and Haddock Fishery Line-Fishing The Scottish Fishing 

 Boats Loss of Boats on the Scottish Coasts Storms in Scotland Trawl- 

 Net Fishing Description of a Trawler Evidence on the Trawl Question. 



IT is among the white fish, as they are called, that we find 

 the chief food-fishes of this kingdom as the haddock, 

 cod, whiting, ling, sole, flounder, turbot, and skate, all of 

 which, and about a dozen others (not including the mackerel), 

 equally good for food, belong to two well-known fish families 

 Gadidae and Pleuronectidse and give employment in their 

 capture to the two best-known instruments of destruction, 

 the line and the trawl. 



It is exceedingly difficult to procure reliable statistics 

 of the total quanity of fish taken in the British seas. These 

 can only be obtained in a crude way from the fishermen, 

 there being no tally kept by the salesman, except of a rough 

 kind. I made some inquiries into the London fish supply at 

 Billingsgate, but they were unsatisfactory, as there is no 

 register kept there of the quantity sold. Each of the whole- 

 sale men can give an idea of the total number or quantity of 

 fish consigned to him ; but even if the whole body of sales- 



