TRAWLING. 
383 
weeks at a time, without returning to their homes, whereas those 
who fish single-boating, carrying ice for preserving their fish, do 
not stay longer than five or six days at sea before returning to 
market. In summer time no doubt fleeting is unavoidable; 
fishing as they do so far away from any market, that, with the 
usual calms prevailing, unless steam carriers took the fish to 
land daily, it could not reach market in the fresh condition which 
it now does. 
Fishermen formerly sold their own fish, and on arriving at the 
fish- wharf or quay, buyers, who would be on the look-out, would 
salute the skipper in some such way as this, "What have ye got?" 
and according to the particular mood the skipper was in, determined 
very much upon the success of the trip, he would answer. " Well, 
what do you want for your hakes V "What are you giving 1 ?" 
"I'll give you six shillings per dozen. Shall I have them'?" 
"How much do you say?" "Why six shillings." And this 
bartering went on till a bargain was struck, and the sale so finished 
at some fixed price. 
Now all this is altered. In fact, in any important fishing port 
in England fish salesmen sell the fish by auction, and pay the 
amount of sale, less commission, holding themselves responsible to 
the fishermen for the amount so sold, which system you can see 
carried on any day on the Barbican. 
In some places sales are conducted on the old system of Dutch 
auction; that is, by asking a price for a given lot, say of £1, and 
then by lessening the price Is. a time, commonly called a lower, 
when some buyer shout out pit, meaning that he will take it at 
the price last named. Such a method is practised at Lowestoft, 
Ramsgate, Great Grimsby, Hull, and it is a very interesting sight 
to witness the sale going on, as it is done, in all manner of tones 
of voices, many salesmen shouting at the same time, some selling 
soles, others turbots, some plaice, and in turn others haddocks ; and 
to a stranger it certainly must appear much more like discord than 
harmony. 
At other ports sales are conducted on the auction principle, 
until the highest bidder becomes the purchaser, which is the style 
we practice in Plymouth. 
The difficulty surrounding the fishing interest at present is not 
so much one of catching as it is one of distribution. Without 
