286 DEMAND FOR WHITE FISH. [CHAP. vn. 



men were to give such statistics, it would only, after all, re- 

 present a portion of the London supply, because much of the fish 

 required for the London commissariat is sent direct by railway 

 to private dealers. But London, although it requires a very 

 large total of fish, seldom obtains all that its citizens could 

 eat, nor does it by any means get all that are captured, or 

 that are imported. Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool, and 

 other large towns in England ; and Glasgow, Edinburgh, 

 Dundee, and Aberdeen, in Scotland, require likewise to be 

 supplied. And besides this home demand, we send con- 

 siderable quantities of our white fish to the Continent, 

 especially in a dried or prepared state. The fishermen of 

 the Shetland Isles, for instance, cure largely for the Spanish 

 and other Continental markets. Finnan haddocks and pickled 

 cod can be so prepared as to bear shipment to a long distance, 

 and kippered salmon are found on sale everywhere, as are 

 also pickled and smoked herrings. 



The natural history of our white fish, as I have already 

 said, is but imperfectly known. As an instance of the very 

 limited knowledge we possess of the natural history of even 

 our most favourite fishes, I may state that at a meeting of 

 the British Association a few years ago, a member who read 

 an interesting paper On the Sea Fisheries of Ireland, intro- 

 duced specimens of a substance which the Irish fishermen 

 considered to be spawn of the turbot; stating that wher- 

 ever this substance was found trawling was forbidden ; the 

 supposed spawn being in reality a kind of sponge, with no 

 other relation to fish except as being indicative of beds of 

 mollusca, the abundance of which marks that fish are plentiful. 

 It follows that the stoppage of the trawl on the grounds 

 where this kind of squid is found is the result of sheer ignor- 

 ance, and causes the loss in all likelihood of great quantities 

 of the best white fish. It is not easy to say when the Gadidse 

 are in proper season. Some of the members of that family 



