74 FISH. 



return generally obtained from the enormous num- 

 bers of this fish sometimes captured in a single 

 night, naturally gives a stimulus to great exertions. 

 In May, ]807, the first Brighton boat-load of 

 mackerel sold at Billingsgate for forty guineas 

 per hundred, i. e. seven shillings each, if six 

 score be reckoned to the hundred ; the highest 

 price ever known at that market. The next boat- 

 load produced but thirteen guineas per hundred ; 

 mackerel were so plentiful at Dover in 1808, that 

 they were sold sixty for a shilling. At Brighton, 

 in June of the same year, the shoal was so great, 

 that one of the boats had the meshes of her nets 

 so completely occupied with them, that it was im- 

 possible to drag them in ; the fish and nets there- 

 fore in the end sunk together. In May and June 

 there is fine fishing for mackerel with hook and 

 line on the Dover and Brighton coast. 



In the ' Times' of May, 1863, under the head of 

 " The Cornish Fisheries," it stated the boats em- 

 ployed in the mackerel fishery at St. Ives had been 

 very successful, particularly those from the east- 

 ward, and the price had been high. One day up- 

 wards of 100,000 fish were landed, price 21s. per 

 hundred, equal to 1050; on another day, 80,000 



