30 THE DISTEIBUTION OF FISH. 



was made by a country gentleman of Scotland, Mr. Dempster of 

 Dunniohen, in 1780. Steiamboat and rail-way transit, when 

 they became general, at once converted salmon into a valuable 

 commodity; and such became the demand, from facility of 

 transport, that this particular fish, from its great individual 

 value, has more than once been in danger of being exterminated 

 through the greed of the fishery tenants. 



The network of railways which now encircles the land has 

 conferred upon our inland towns, so far as fish is concerned, all 

 the advantages of the coast. For instance, the fishermen of 

 Prestonpans send more of their fish to Manchester than to 

 Edinburgh, which is only nine miles distant : indeed our most 

 landward cities are comparatively well supplied with fresh fish 

 and Crustacea, while at the seaside these delicacies are not 

 plentiful. The Newhaven fishwife is a common and picturesque 

 visitant of many of the larger Scottish inland towns, being able 

 by means of the railways to take profitable journeys ; indeed, 

 one consequence of the extension of railways has undoubtedly 

 been to add enormously to the demand for sea produce, and to 

 excite the ingenuity of our seafaring population to stiU greater 

 curming and industry in the capture' of all kinds of fish. In 

 former years, when a large haul of fish was taken, there was no 

 means of despatching them to a distance, neither was there a 

 resident population to consume what was caught. Railways 

 not being in existence, the conveyance of the period was too 

 slow for perishable commodities, and visitors to the seaside 

 were also rarer than at present. The want of a population to 

 eat the fish no doubt aided the comfortable delusion of our 

 supplies being inexhaustible. But it is now an undoubted fact, 

 that with railways branching to every pier and quay, our densely- 

 populated inland towns are better supplied with fish than the 

 villages where they are caught — a result of that keen competi- 

 tion so noticeable where fish and other sea delicacies are concerned. 

 High prices form an inducement to the fishermen to take from 

 the water all they can get, whether the fish be ripe for food or 

 not. A practical fisherman, whom I have often consulted on 

 these topics, says that forty years ago the slow system of carriage 

 was a sure preventive of over-fishing, as fish, to be valuable for 

 table purposes, require to be fresh. " It's the railways that has 

 done all the mischief, sir ; depend on that ; and as for the fish- 

 ing, sir, it's going on at such a rate that there will some day be 

 a complete famine. I've seen in my time more fish caught with 



