CHAPTEE II. 



FISH COMMERCE. 



Early Fish Commerce — Sale of Fresh-water Fish— Cured Fish — Influence 

 of Rapid Transit on the Fisheries — ^Fish-ponds — ^The Logan Pond — 

 Ancient Fishing Industries — The Dutch Herring Fishing — Zuyder Zee 

 Herring Fishery — The Fishers of Friesland — The Herring in Holland 

 — The Dutch Cure— Dutch Salmon — Salmon Fishing in Holland — 

 Law of the Fishing. 



In the absence of precise information, it may be guessed that 

 even during the far back ages fish was esteemed as an article 

 of food, and formed an important contribution to the diet of 

 such peoples as had access to the sea, or who could obtain the 

 finny inhabitants of the deep by purchase or barter. In the Old 

 and New Testaments, and in various ancient profane histories, 

 fish and fishing are frequently mentioned ; and in what may 

 be called modern times a few scattered dates, indicating the 

 progress of the sea fisheries, may, by the exercise of great in- 

 dustry and much research, be collected ; but these are not in 

 any sense consecutive, or indeed very reliable, so that we are, 'as 

 it were, compelled to imagine the progress of fish commerce, and 

 to picture in our mind's eye its transition from a period when 

 the mere satisfaction of individual wants was only cared for, to 

 a time when fish began to be bartered for land goods — such as 

 farm, dairy, and garden produce — and to trace, as we best can, 

 that commerce through these obscure epochs to the present time, 

 when fisheries form a prominent outlet for capital, are a large 

 source of national revenue, and attract, because of these qualities, 

 a degree of attention never before bestowed upon them. Pish 

 commerce being an industry naturally arising out of the im- 

 mediate wants of mankind, has unfortunately been invested with 

 an amount of exaggeration having no parallel in other branches 

 of industry. Blunders perpetrated long ago in natural histories 

 and Encyclopaedias, when the life and habits of all kinds of fish. 



