202 DEMAHD FOE WHITE FISH. 



penny, whilst, " three a penny " was a common price for the 

 finest fresh herrings. At various times within the memory of 

 the present generation, both sprats and herrings Jiave been 

 so plentiful as to be sold for manure. Such days, however, 

 are gone, never to return. The railways, which have altered 

 so many conditions of life and trade, have changed entirely the 

 whole system of fish commerce. Thousands of tons of our best 

 food fishes are now borne daily from the sea to the great inland 

 seats of population, where there is a sure and speedy demand 

 for as much as can be sent. The London commissariat alone, 

 Bu^lemented by a few other large cities, demands, but fortunately 

 does not obtain, all the fish of the sea ! Haddocks, cod-fish, 

 whitings, and turbot, can be sold in any quantity when the price 

 is moderate ; but no person can exactly estimate the supply, as 

 there is no record kept at BUlingsgate of the total business done 

 there ; nor is all the fish business of London now transacted at 

 Billingsgate, as many of the West-end fishmongers obtain their 

 supplies direct from the coast. We should be glad if reliable 

 statistics of the annual "take" of sea-fish were collected by 

 Govemmenf. Correct figures would be a guide as to the 

 supplies; we should then reaUy know if our fish food was 

 increasing or diminishing. Such statistics are taken in Scotland 

 as regards the herring, and what is done for that fish might be 

 done for other fishes. It is said that there are at present a 

 thousand trawlers employed for the London market; and if 

 each of these vessels takes about oie hundred tons of fish per 

 annum, we should find that nearly one hundred thousand tons 

 of large fish are taken every year, in addition to the abundant 

 supplies of herring, mackerel, sprats, etc., which are being con- 

 stantly forwarded day by day to the great metropolis. 



The natural history of our white fish is but imperfectly 

 known. As an instance of the very limited knowledge we 

 possess of the natural history of even our most favourite fishes, 

 I may state that at a meeting of the British Association a few 

 years ago, a member who read an interesting paper On the Sea 

 Fisheries of Ireland, introduced specimens of a substance which 

 the Irish fishermen considered to be spawn of the turbot ; 

 Stating thect wherever this substance was found trawling was 

 forbidden ; the supposed spawn being in reality a kind of sponge, 

 with no other relation to fish except as being indicative of beds 

 of moUusca, the abundance of which marks that fish are plenti- 

 ful It follows that the stoppage of trawling on the grounds 



