WASTE OF riSH, &C. OQ I 



ft)unJ a read) market for them !" for myfelf. Sir, before I 

 even hinted tlirough your Journal, at thefe ftrong affirmations, 

 I made it my biifinefs to enquire of fome friends at 7\berdeen, 

 of the truth or falfehood of fuch afierlions; deeminjy it then, 

 as that gentleman does at prefent, an improbable ftalement ; 

 under thefe circumftances I cannot confider the communica- 

 tion you did me the favour to infert, as miHfating either againft 

 your cofrefpondents rule of examination, or my own habitual 

 fcepticifm : — that gentleman, in recommending accuracy of 

 ftatement, ought not to have forgotten it himfelf; he will eafiiy 

 fee that Aberdeen is not mentioned by me as being at all 

 concerned in this wafte of fuftenance. My little note to you 

 has rouzed the attention of A, L. — Is it wandering too much 

 into 



" the fairy regions of romance,'^ 

 to hope that the fubjeft may obtain llill farther notice ? and 

 continue to do fo until it be made produ6live of all tlie advan- 

 tages it is capable ? in that cafe, fuppofing defedive informa- 

 tion in my fir ft notice of it (and I prefumeA.L. will allow 1 had 

 fome authority for my opinion, and that he himftlf has not 

 been completely accurate) my errors will be eventually at- Good effe^as of 

 tended with good. Your correfpondent well knows, that *nq""l ^'^^ 



" ' public remark, 



(he aflertion of Dr. Johnfon about the fcarcity ol trees in 

 Scotland, has had the happieft eflfecls. How far that gentle- 

 man's queftion about the vend at the towns I mentioned, may 

 be anfwered in the affirmative or otherwife, I have not yet 

 fufficiently informed myfelf; but certainly under the circum- 

 ftances I conceive to be true, thofe markets would be pre- 

 ferable to fuch wafte. The men employed may look vvlih con- 

 fidence for a fpeedy falej and, if I am not very much mif- 

 taken, thefe towns are fupplied from the Yorkfliire boats, the 

 wind therefore which brings the one fet of boats, would im- 

 pede, if not totallv hinder the other. Far am I from wilhing 

 to throw any obftacles in the way of fo excellent a plan, as 

 that for a fociety for exporting white fi(h from Aberdeen, but 

 where would your correfpondent fend them to? *' is it not to 

 be fuppofed, that fijliers of the places nearejl to fuch tonus could 

 greatly underfell t/iem?" this queftion is not a greater difficulty 

 in the fcheme fuggefted by me of bringing the fiih to Leifh, 

 Berwick, or Newcaftle, than it is to that of A. L. The tact 

 i?, that by giving that queftion weight, competition, in every 



bufuiefs 



