It is amusing at this time to read the various projects or "ways to consume more fish," which were entertained at the com mencement of the last century. The diffi culty on account of the cost of conveyance, and the limited distance to which fresh fish could be sent from the coast, induced some persons to propose that fish sent to inland towns should be " marinated, " or pickled according to a peculiar method. In the sixteenth century, and before those improvements in agriculture were made by which fresh meat may be obtained all the year round, there were great fish fairs in different parts of the country, at which persons bought a stock of salted fish sufficient to last during the winter and the subsequent season of Lent. The herring fair at Yarmouth was regu lated by a statute in the fourteenth cen tury. In 1533 the fairs of Stourbridge, St. Ives, and Ely were " the most notable fairs within this realm for provision of fish" (24 Hen. VIII. c. 4). In 1537 the town of Lynn, in Norfolk, obtained letters patent for establishing a fish fair ; but in 1541 the right of holding the fair was abolished by statute (33 Hen. VIII. c. 34), because the inhabitants attempted to engross the business of other fairs. The apply of the fairs and markets with cheap fish was considered an important matter in those days. In 1541 an act was passed which prohibited the English fishermen from buying fish of foreigners at sea, be cause if they did not do so " the same Pi cards and Flemings would bring the same fish over themselves and sell it to the king's subjects much better cheap, and for less money" (33 Hen. VIII. c. 2).
One branch of fishing wholly different in its object from all other branches has been described by the committee of 1833 Bader the title of the Fishery.
This fishery prevails principally upon the Kentish, Norfolk, and Essex coasts ; and the object is the catching of sprats as manure for the land, for which there is a constant demand. This branch of fish ing is represented by the committee to have much increased, and to give employ. ment on the Kentish coast alone to from 400 to 500 boats, which remain upon the fishing grounds frequently for a week to gether and until each has obtained a full cargo.
Vessels and boats employed in fishing are licensed by the Commissioners of Cus toms in pursuance of the acts for the pre vention of smuggling; and they are re quired to be painted or tarred entirely black, except the name and place to which such vessel or boat belongs. A parlia mentary return for 1844 gives the number of vessels above and under fifty tons regis tered at each port in the United Kingdom : the greater proportion of those under fifty tons are principally employed in fish ing. At Faversham there were 218 vessels under fifty tons, and their average tonnage was twenty-one tons; at Yarmouth, 321 ; Southampton, 131 ; Maldon, 105 ; Roches ter, 256; Colchester, 203; Dover, 91 ; Rye, 55 ; Ramsgate, 80 ; Dartmouth, 256.
The licences thus granted specify the limits beyond which fishing vessels must not be employed : this distance is usually four leagues from the English coast, and it is affirmed that our fishermen are in jured by this restriction, because some valuable fishing grounds lie beyond the prescribed limits and are thus abandoned to foreigners.
The pilchard ,fishery , which is carried on upon parts of the Devon and Cornish coasts, is of some importance. The num ber of boats engaged in it is about 1000, which give employment to about 3500 men at sea and about 5000 men and women on shore. As soon as caught the pilchards are salted or pickled and ex ported to foreign markets, chiefly to the Mediterranean : the average export amounts to 30,000 hogsheads per year. The quantity was much greater formerly, when a bounty of 8s. 6d. per hogshead was paid upon all exported ; heavy duties are generally imposed in the countries to which the exports are made.
Our chief salmon fisheries are carried on in the rivers and sestuaries of Scotland, but the annual value of this fishery is not exactly known. In 1835 the produce of the salmon fisheries in Sutherlandshire was 258,291 lbs.; in the river Foyle, 321,366 lbs.; in the river Beauly the number of fish taken was 15,891, and the number taken In the south-east and north-east was 54,659, and the average weight of each was estimated at 10 lbs. The produce of the fishings in the rivers Tay, Dee, Don, Spey, Findhorn, Beauly, Borriedale, Langwell and Thurso, and of the coasts adjacent, are conveyed in steam-boats and small sailing-vessels to Aberdeen, where they are packed with ice in boxes and sent to the London market. The ship ments thus made from Aberdeen, in 1835, was 11,549 boxes (each containing from ten to twelve fish and weighing 120 lbs.) and 5671 kits.
The rental of the salmon fisheries on the river Tweed averaged about 12,0001. a-year for the seven years preceding 1824. The late Duke of Gordon received a rental of about 8000/. a-year for a fishery on the Spey : the expenses of the fishery are supposed to have amounted to about one-half this ruin.
London is the great market to which Scotch salmon are sent. The quantity which arrives during one season is about 2500 tons, and the average price is from :.0d. to ls. per lb. The arrivals average about 30 boxes per day in February and March, 50 in April, from 80 to 100 in May, from 200 to 300 at the beginning of June, and 500 towards the close of the month, when the number gradually in creases until it amounts, at the end of July and beginning of August, to 1000 boxes and upwards per day, and the price is occasionally as low as 5d. and 6d. per lb. ; and is in fact lowest at the time when the fish is in the primest condition. The plan of packing salmon in ice was adopted about 1785, and the idea was taken from the Chinese ; but it was not until the application of steam to navigation that the trade reached anything like its pre sent magnitude. Even when ice was used, contrary winds would protract the voyage and the fish would be spoiled. The London trade, instead of being at its height in July and August, was over by May, or whenever the weather became warm. The great towns of Yorkshire, Lancashire, and the midland manufactur ing counties, are also frequently supplied with immense quantities of Scotch and Irish salmon, but they are not constantly well supplied.