420 ON THE PLACE OF FISH IN 



river might be spared but even one year from nets, 

 &c. ! But, alas ! then should many a poor man be 

 undone.) 



The tide rises and falls twice a day as high as 

 seventy miles above London. There are floods when 

 the Thames overfloweth her banks in the falls and 

 changes of January and February wherein the lower 

 ground are soonest drowned ; this order of flowing is 

 perpetual. These land floods also do greatly strain 

 the fineness of the stream, insomuch that after a 

 Haddock. great land flood you shall take haddock with your 

 hands beneath the bridge, as they float upon the 

 water, whose eyes are so blinded with the thick- 

 ness of that element, that they cannot see where 

 to become and make shift to save themselves before 

 death take hold of them. Otherwise the water of 

 itself is very clear, and in comparison next unto that 

 of the sea, which is subtle and pure of all other. 



Extracts from 'THE PAMPHLETEER.' Vol. I. 1813. 



It is a singular but ascertained fact, that when the 

 largest quantity of mackerel is in the British Channel, 

 which supplies the London market, the fishermen who 

 frequent Billingsgate almost wholly discontinue the 

 mackerel fishing. It is thus accounted for the fisher- 

 men depend on the fishwomen who daily attend 

 Billingsgate with baskets on their heads to purchase 

 their fish. But as soon as the common fruit comes into 

 season these women find the sale of gooseberries and 

 such like produce them a larger and more secure profit, 

 with less risk and trouble. 



Being disappointed of a sale for the mackerel at the 



