VI PREFACE. 



a red hen-ing, than by the connoisseur who " trifles " witli 

 tnrbot cl la Bechamel* 



It must be remembered, too, that our English fisheries are 

 of considerable commercial importance ; and that all along 

 our coast, from St. Ives to Wick, populous and prosperous 

 towns are dotted, which, but for these fisheries, would 

 speedily cease to possess a local habitation and a name. 

 Further: they breed a hardy and adventurous race of sea- 

 men, to whom, in time of war, the royal navy must look for 

 its best recruits ; self-reliant, skilful, patient, and mostly 

 temperate men, such as are seldom to be found, now-a-days, 

 on the decks of our merchant- vessels. They live a hard life ; 

 a life with many risks and small gains ; and they take their 

 changes and chances very quietly ; seldom murmuring, and 

 never going out "on strike," or "rattening." It is to be 

 wished some competent writer would sketch the manners and 

 customs of our fishing-population ; for Mr. Bertram, in his 

 valuable " Harvest of the Sea," has but lightly touched upon 

 this part of his subject. 



Of the great fisheries of the world, but more particularly 

 of those in which British enterprise is engaged, the present 

 volume attempts to offer a popular survey, which, the author 

 trusts, will prove acceptable to the fish-loving reader. It 

 aims at being comprehensive rather than exhaustive ; and 

 the design has been to furnish such information as would be 

 useful and attractive to the general public, rather than to 

 supply material for the investigation of the learned in pisci- 

 culture and piscicapture. For this reason its scope has been 

 extended so as to include certain fisheries which are of com- 

 mercial significance, though they do not add to our food- 

 supplies. The author has taken the greatest care in the 

 collection of his facts ; and would fain hope that the reader 

 who takes the trouble to peruse his discursive pages will find 

 in them something which he did not know before, and gain 

 a stronger and enduring interest in the great fisheries and in 

 the men who carry them on. ' 



