BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 363 
whatever is being sold. The sales at Brixham begin at 0 o’clock a. m. 7 
and continue as long as fish arrive at the market. 
They are conducted by a number of salesmen, who dispose of the fish 
as fast as it arrives, 1 5d. in the pound being charged for commission on 
sales, and dock fees. The prime fish goes chiefly to London, offal mostly 
to country trade, the greater part of the conger eels finding a market 
at Manchester. A number of women were at work cleaning and pack- 
ing the poorer grades of fish, chiefly small haddocks, which are hawked 
about the interior towns, while a somewhat better grade was being 
packed in carts and wagons with ice; these, it was said, were for sale 
at Torquay. 
4. Shields as a fish market . — Shields has of late grown into considerable 
importance as a market for trawled fish, since it now has a large fleet 
of steam trawlers. 
The following account of the arrival of a fleet of steamers at the 
Shields fish market, and the sale and shipment of their cargoes, is 
quoted from the (London) Fish Trades Gazette of October 17, 1835: 
“ When mild September gives place to chill October, and the last of 
the herring boats has spread its brown wings and disappeared, north 
or south, as the case may be, then the steam trawler seems to settle 
itself down to business, to proudly take sole possession once more of 
the fish quay at Shields, just like some party who had been bewildered 
and harassed by summer visitors and was right glad to get rid of them. 
There is a wealth of all that is picturesque in the herring fleet, its 
toilers, and their doings; but the steam trawler, in full winter vigor, 
gives you a picture that is thrilling — one that serves to make you 
totally oblivious to the keenest blast from the North Sea when you 
have screwed up the courage to steal from beneath the blankets and 
venture down to the low lights in the early morning. A befitting com- 
panion picture is to be had in the scene on the quay after the fish is 
landed, and salesmen are bawling themselves hoarse, when big con- 
signments are being hurried away and fishwives are in full tongue. 
Being anxious to look on the scene as a whole, from beginning to end, 
the writer the other morning found himself shortly after 6 endeavoring 
to secure shelter from a biting sea breeze, under the lee of a pile of 
casks and boxes, beneath a huge shed, which serves as dispatching 
department to the various dealers. There was little astir that indicated 
the scene of life and bustle which was soon to follow. Everybody 
seemed to be bent on shelter like myself, and the spacious boarding of 
the quay was tenanted only by awkward lorries lying here and there. 
Eventually, there was a movement of one or two individuals, who 
looked as if something to do would come as a relief, towards the ex- 
treme end of the jetty, which reaches out into the river and gives a view 
down the harbor and out to sea. There they stood, hands thrust elbow- 
deep into their pockets, and, sucking vigorously at local twist tobacco, 
gazed out onto the waters. ‘What’s the matter with those fellows'?’ 
