362 BULLETIN OF TIIE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
small costermonger to postpone bis visit to Billingsgate till be bas dis- 
posed of bis purchases of tbe previous day .’ 71 
Such are some of the features connected with tbe selling of fish at 
Billingsgate. Elsewhere mention is made of tbe methods of receiving, 
selling, and shipping of fish at Grimsby, which differ somewhat from 
those in vogue at London. 
3. Fish sale at Brixham . — In the summer of 1883, while making a brief 
visit to Brixham, the writer had an opportunity of learning something 
of the methods of trawling, as pursued from that port. Since the de- 
scription of the care of fish, marketing, etc., which we have given ap- 
plies more particularly to the methods adopted by the North Sea fisher- 
men, and at the larger ports, it may be of interest to say something 
hereof how the business is conducted at Brixham. The vessels em- 
ployed from Brixham are mostly single-masted cutters which fish not 
far from its harbor, though a number of ketch-rigged trawlers which go 
to the North Sea are owned there, and for about two mouths in sum- 
mer a few Brixham boats fish off Tenby, in Wales. With the exception 
of those fishing in the North Sea, each of these vessels carry a crew of 
three men and a boy. The vessels fishing about home stay in harbor 
on Sunday, as a rule. They generally land their catch every day— 
usually in the morning— sometimes twice a day when the conditions 
are favorable. They carry no ice. As soon as the trawl is got on board 
in the morning the vessel is headed for Brixham, and all necessary sail 
is set. The fish are assorted and packed in small baskets called u p a tl s j” 
of w 7 hich there are two sizes, one holding about 10 or 12 pounds, and the 
other double that quantity. 
If the weather is fine the cutter heaves to outside the pier, the boat 
is got out, the fish put into her, and two of the crew take the u lot” to 
the harbor, where they land their cargo at the market. As soon as the 
fish are sold — sometimes before — the men return to their vessel that, 
in the mean time, has been jogging outside, and which immediately 
heads off for the fishing ground again. If the wind blows fresh this 
can not be done 5 therefore the smack anchors outside, if the wind is 
off the land; otherwise she goes to Dartmouth, Torquay, or Plymouth . * 2 
The baskets have the vessel’s mark attached to them, so that they 
may be known. All fish are sold at auction to the highest bidder, and 
not at “ Dutch” auction, as at Grimsby, where the first bidder takes 
^ke British Fisk Trade, by Sir Spencer Walpole, lieutenant-governor of the Isle 
of Man, pp. 58, 59. 
2 In a paragraph entitled “ Sea Fishing on the Southwest Coast,” by J. C. Wil- 
cocks, which appeared in the London Field of February ;38, 1885, the following state- 
ment was made relative to the Brixham smacks going to other ports : “ The largest 
number of trawlers delivering fish at Plymouth during the past week was a hundred. 
Between thirty or forty of the vessels were from Brixham, the whole of the smacks 
belonging to Plymouth being a little under seventy in number. The increase in num- 
ber of vessels delivering fish at Plymouth was owing to a strong east wind. At 
Brixham the largest number of vessels delivering fish was only thirty-five, a small 
number for this important fishing port.” 
