PRIME AND OFFAL 101 



the smacksmen would not be out of pocket although 

 they would not be much in for I noticed that the offal 

 was selling at Billingsgate for 33. 6d. a box, meaning 

 that the fishermen would make is. 4d. per box on fish 

 of that kind. 



I had an opportunity on board the carrier the 

 Pelican of analysing the returns of fish, and from these 

 I noticed that the largest number of boxes sent by a 

 single smack was sixty, while the smallest was one. 

 Almost every other number between these two was 

 included in the other returns. A box of " prime" will 

 fetch on an average $ ; but the price varies according 

 to the market. The boxes contain about seven stones 

 each when packed in the ordinary manner ; but they 

 will hold an additional stone. 



The cod, which represents in itself a gigantic North 

 Sea industry, ranks as offal. Vast quantities of this 

 species of fish are caught by trawl and line, and there 

 are always heavy dealings in both live and dead cod for 

 the purposes of immediate consumption and drying and 

 curing for export. For two hundred years at least the 

 cod has received special attention from fishermen, and 

 even in the crude early days of harvesting the sea special 

 and ingenious efforts were made to devise means of 

 getting cod on the market in the best condition. There 

 is only one way of doing that, and it is to keep the fish 

 alive as long as possible. What is known as live cod 

 fetches a much bigger price on the market than what 

 is technically called dead cod, although, as a matter of 

 fact, both creatures are carcases. The dead cod is the 

 fish which has been hauled and cleaned and packed and 

 sent to market in the usual way ; the live cod is the fish 



