THE BRITISH FISH TRADE. 5 



tained by reference to a number of more or less authorita- 

 tive publications, and to be inferred, rather than proved, 

 from a number of incidental circumstances. There are 

 no means of ascertaining with any precision such simple 

 facts as the number of boats employed, or the number 

 of persons engaged, in the sea-fisheries of England and 

 Wales.* 



This absence of information naturally increases the diffi- 

 culty of any writer who undertakes to describe the fish 

 trade of the United Kingdom. Instead of moving on firm 

 ground, he is perpetually fearing that the whole basis of 

 his argument may give way as he advances. He is forced 

 to adduce theories where he ought to state facts, and he 

 has to prove elementary propositions which ought to be 

 accepted as readily as axioms. The difficulty with which 

 his task is thus surrounded is his fittest excuse for any 

 imperfections on his part in completing it ; and the best 

 service, which he can perhaps hope to accomplish, is to 

 induce the Government to supply some of the information, 

 the publication of which would have made most of his own 

 labours unnecessary. 



And, in truth, if there be any subject on which statistical 

 information is desirable, if there be any industry which 



* A return is annually published, by the Registrar- General of 

 Shipping and Seamen, of the number of boats, registered under the 

 Sea Fisheries Act 1868, belonging to each port in the United Kingdom. 

 But the return is imperfect for the following reason : " On the 23rd of 

 October, 1877, an Order in Council was obtained by the Board of Trade, 

 exempting from registration, &c., undecked boats, fishing or dredging 

 on the coasts of England, Wales, and Scotland, and the Islands of 

 Guernsey, Jersey, Sark, and Man, and not going outside the distance 

 of three miles from low-water mark along the said coasts." Since the 

 date of this order, which however never applied to Ireland, and from 

 the operation of which Scotland was exempted in 1880, the Registry 

 of fishing boats has become more and more imperfect. 



