230 BRITISH FISHERIES 



The evidence submitted to this committee 

 showed very clearly how very imperfect the system 

 of collecting statistics must have been. Take the 

 case of Grimsby, for instance. Over 60,000 tons 

 of fish are landed yearly at this port. Some fifty 

 boats arrive daily, all between the hours of 6 a.m. 

 and noon, and the fish brought by them are landed 

 on a pontoon which is about a quarter of a mile 

 long. It is, of course, quite impossible that one 

 man should be able to ascertain personally the 

 quantities of fish of each different species con- 

 tained in this mass of produce (about 300 tons), 

 and the collector was obliged to depend on 

 returns furnished by the railway company of fish 

 carried away from the port. Now, the railway 

 people do not distinguish between different kinds, 

 their figures representing merely the gross quantity 

 dealt with ; and it was, therefore, necessary for 

 the collector to ascertain as best he could, presum- 

 ably by observation of the catches as displayed 

 on the pontoon, how this gross quantity was 

 to be apportioned among the species enumerated 

 in his returns. Then an allowance had to be 

 made for the fish sold for consumption in the 

 neighbourhood, and a deduction had also to be 

 made for the weight of boxes, packing, and ice 

 carried by rail. Even then the figures could not 

 represent the approximate number of fishes landed, 

 for the catch consisted of fish of different sizes : 

 one box of plaice might contain fifty large fish, 



