tillage, without expense of seed or manure, without the payment of rent or taxes, is inexhaustible, the extraordinary fecundity of the most valuable species of fish would alone afford abundant proof.

In spite, however, of this large supply of wholesome, palatable, and nutritious food, yielded by the surrounding seas of Great Britain, every acre of which is infinitely more productive than the same quantity of the richest land; notwithstanding that these salt-water fields are perpetually "white to the harvest," it is a remarkable fact that, in the inland and middle counties of England, the labouring classes scarcely know the taste of fish, which of late years has become a scarce article, even in some of the maritime counties. Formerly salmon, whilst in season, was the common food of all ranks in the northern counties bordering on the sea, and in most parts of Wales, and what could not be used fresh was salted for winter consumption; there was scarcely a family in the neighbourhood of a seaport or salmon fishery that did not lay up a supply of pickled salmon for the winter.

The produce of the sea around our coasts bears a far higher proportion to that of the land than is generally imagined. The most frequented fishing grounds are much more prolific of food than the same extent of the richest land. Once in the year an acre of good land carefully tilled produces a ton of corn, or two or three cwts. of meat or cheese. The same area at the bottom of the sea on the best fishing grounds yields a greater weight of food to the persevering fisherman every week in the year. Five vessels belonging to the same owner, in a single night's fishing, have brought in 17 tons weight of fish, an amount of wholesome food equal in weight to that of 50 cattle, or 300 sheep. The ground which these vessels covered

during the night's fishing could not have exceeded an area of 50 acres.

Large as is the present supply of fish, and considerable the refuse of our fisheries as manure, much greater things are yet to be accomplished in this way, in both our supply of food, and of fertilizers for our land. The increasing scarcity and high price of butcher's meat leaves no doubt that a great field is open for the application of increased capital and skill to our sea-fisheries. Though the supply of fish to Billingsgate is constantly increasing, it fails to keep pace with the demand. The well-known fishing grounds of the North Sea are yet only partially fished. The Dogger Bank, which has an area of several hundred square miles, and is most prolific of fish, is to a great extent unworked by the trawlers, and new grounds are still being discovered where fish are found in great abundance. Between England and the continent the average depth of the German Ocean is 90 feet. One-fifth of it is occupied by banks, which are always being added to by the muddy deposits of the rivers of both countries. In extent they are equal to the superficial area of Ireland. To these banks the animals of the ocean chiefly resort, and this great and prolific field is free to the industry of all.

It was stated by a recent writer in Blackwood's Magazine that no department of British industry has received. such a remarkable impulse from railways as the seafisheries of the United Kingdom. They have, in fact, completely revolutionized it. Before the Eastern Counties Railway was constructed, the transport of fish from Yarmouth to London was effected by light vans drawn by post-horses, and the quantity amounted to about 2000 tons a year. Nearly double that quantity is now conveyed to London and the great manufacturing towns in the course

of a fortnight. During the year 1853, the annus mirabilis of the Yarmouth fishery, 12,000 tons of fresh herrings alone were despatched from that place to London and the provinces. At Grimsby the quantity of fish landed in 1872, and transmitted by rail, averaged 600 tons a week, or at the rate of more than 31,000 tons a year. The prodigious quantity of wholesome food now daily forwarded into the interior of the country from our principal fishing stations almost exceeds belief. The station-master of Lowestoft informed the Royal Commission of 1864 that in the two preceding years he had often despatched from that town 100 truck-loads of fish a day, each truck containing from three to four tons. From 4000 to 5000 tons of herrings, and 1000 tons of other fish, have been sent by railway from the town of Dunbar alone in the course of a single week into the interior of Scotland. Before this rapid mode of transport was invented, the consumption of fresh fish was restricted to the seaboard, the metropolis, and a few of the most considerable provincial towns. To the mass of our island population the red herring was the only representative of sea-fish which ever met their eyes; now there is scarcely a hamlet in which the poor man's frugal dinner is not occasionally varied by a dish of fresh herrings or some other cheap fish, which the facilities of transit from the coast have brought to his door. The increase of fishing power brought of late years to bear upon the sea is equally remarkable. In 1814 only five vessels were fitted out as deep-sea trawlers from Yarmouth, and not one from any other port of the United Kingdom. There cannot now be less, on the most moderate estimate, than 1000 sea-going trawlers, hailing from British ports and working in the North Sea, and certainly not less than 300 in the English Channel, and 100 in the Irish Sea. For

many years there has been a gradual increase in the number of fishing smacks in every port of the United Kingdom.

Fish, crayfish, and many other marine products form an easily digestible and pleasant food, which, it is maintained, is also calculated to stimulate mental activity. Civilized nations cannot abstain from this important aliment without detriment to themselves. Fish, even without any elaborate dressing, form a good and easily prepared meal for the labouring classes. Their flesh contains as large an amount of protein as pork; 100 lbs. of fish flesh contains as much nourishing matter as 200 lbs. of wheat bread or 700 lbs. of potatoes. It is an essential advantage of the fisheries that their products supply delicacies for the tables of the rich and wholesome cheap food for the poorer classes.

According to calculations made some years ago, the daily consumption of fish per head amounted to one-seventh of a pound in London, one-twentieth of a pound in Paris, and one-fortieth of a pound in Berlin.

The great importance of fish as an article of food may be clearly shown by a comparison of the total supply of fish to London in the course of a single year. At this time there are between 800 and 900 trawl vessels engaged in supplying the London market with fish; and assuming the annual take for each to average 90 tons, this would give a total of some 80,000 tons of trawled fish. This quantity is irrespective of the vast quantities of herrings, sprats, shell-fish, and descriptions of fish which are supplied by other modes of fishing. On the east coast of England, and in the London fish-market, the trade divide the fish into two classes-" prime" and "offal." The "prime" comprise sole, turbot, brill, and cod. The "offal" are chiefly haddock, plaice, and whiting. The term "offal"

seems to have been introduced when the demand for fish and the means of conveying it to market were much more limited than at present, and when it was therefore often found necessary to throw overboard much of the less valuable descriptions, which could not bear the cost of transport. The use of the word "offal" may now be held to signify the more plentiful and lower-priced class of fish, which finds its way in the greatest abundance to the large towns. The proportion of “prime" and "offal" fish caught by the trawl varies considerably, but may be taken at an average of one-fourth "prime" to three-fourths of "offal." Of "prime," the sole seems to be the general favourite. It is more eaten in London than any other description of "prime" fish, and during the summer a considerable supply is sent daily from the London fish-market to Paris.

Notwithstanding the enormous increase which has taken place in the population of the metropolis during the last twenty years, it is very questionable if the weight of fish annually received has not actually diminished. The falling off in the supplies which reach us by water is very remarkable. In 1848 it amounted to 108,739 tons; but in 1871 it fell to 44,077 tons. This reduction has been gradual but continuous from year to year. The quantity brought to town by railway has, on the other hand, increased, but hardly in the ratio of the diminution by water. There are no statistics of our fish supplies by rail available prior to 1865, but the quantity which reached us in this way in 1871 was 72,386 tons. The fish imports into London by water were in

The total weight of fish brought to London by water and rail was in