THE 



COMMERCIAL SEA FISHES 



OF 



GREAT BRITAIN. 



THE natural history of the commercial sea fishes of Great 

 Britain forms a subject which is not only of the greatest 

 importance to the fishermen who capture them, the salesman 

 who disposes of them, the consumers who purchase them, 

 but also to those whose trades are intimately bound up in 

 the prosperity of shipping and fish-curing. Irrespective of 

 the foregoing classes, sea fish are interesting to the general 

 public, for their capture in ages long gone by may be 

 asserted to have been the basis from which commerce has 

 sprung. 



Man in his savage condition must have possessed the 

 natural wish of desiring food when he was hungry, and, 

 nauseated with a vegetarian diet, he would seek change by 

 the addition of animal substances. Those residing near 

 the sea coast would first resort to such molluscs, Crustacea, 

 and fish as could be readily taken in the shallows or were 

 left in pools by a receding tide. But as man's wants 

 increased, and his sources of supply began to diminish, he 

 would have to add to his devices. He would wade afte 

 his prey, pursue them with spears, shoot them with bows 

 and arrows, or obtain them by setting up dams or weirs. 



B 2 



