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CHAPTER IV.

FISHERIES.

Consumption of Fish-Enforced by Legislation-Salmon Fishery-Habits of Salmon-Rights of Impropriation-Salmon Rivers-Modes of Capture -Effects of Improved Transit-Herring Fishery-Periodical Migration— Yarmouth-North-east Coast Fishery-Pulteney-Town-Board of Fisheries-Isle of Man-Pilchard Fishery-Vastness of the Shoals-Drift and Seine Nets-Scene in Cornwall-Cod Fishery-Mackerel-SpratsOysters-Channel Islands Fishery-Billingsgate-Fishermen.

FISH, an agreeable diversity of diet, but a bad staple food, abound in the rivers, lakes, and seas of the kingdom; several marine species being so numerous as to offer an inexhaustible harvest to the fisherman, involving no labour of tillage, nor payment of rent, while ripe for the gathering at all seasons of the year. The ancient Britons, it is probable, in their small light coracles, which might be slung across the shoulders, confined themselves to the capture of fresh-water fish, sea-fishing requiring better craft, more expertness, and some skill in navigation. Nor was it till some time after the invasion of the Saxon tribes that the people of Sussex derived advantage from the fish that abounded on their coast. It is a well authenticated circumstance, that about the middle of the seventh century, Wilfred, a turbulent ecclesiastic, ejected from the see of York, took refuge in Sussex; and during a famine instructed the inhabitants in the art of fishing. For a long period, before drainage and cultivation had taken much effect

upon the face of the country, it was extensively overspread with meres and marshes, well supplied with varieties of fish, which were highly prized and consumed in great quantities, owing to the frequent days of abstinence from flesh enjoined by the Roman Catholic church. So large, indeed, was the demand, that sea fisheries were soon carried on with vigour; and the produce was forwarded in a salted state to the inland districts, as it could only be sent to a short distance from the shores while fresh, for want of roads and the means of rapid transit. In fact, little more than a century has elapsed, since the consumption of fresh fish was almost entirely limited to the fresh water species, except along a narrow tract around the coast.

The men of Norfolk and Suffolk took the lead in establishing the sea fisheries, followed by those of Kent and Sussex. Acquiring boldness and skill by experience, they gradually extended their excursions from the shores, visited the coast of Scotland, the Orkneys and Shetlands, and pursued their vocation as far as Iceland, where, however, they merely purchased fish of the subjects of the Danish crown. Besides the main object attained by these voyages, they had undoubtedly the effect of providing the country with a body of hardy seamen, capable of rendering the State good service when called upon; and hence, as admirable nurseries for mariners, the government took the fisheries under special protection, when the Reformation threatened them with damage, by releasing the nation from the obligation to abstain from flesh. Under the rule of Romanism, there were one hundred and fifty-three fish-days enjoined in the year; and lest the demand for the article should be lessened

by the overthrow of the church that imposed them, and the substitution of flesh, so as to cripple the fisheries, the attempt was made to maintain the diet by statute. Thus, in the reign of Edward vi., an "Act for the Abstinence of Flesh" was passed, which stated, that though days and meats are indifferent according to the gospel, yet abstinence from fleshmeat is " a mean to virtue and to subdue men's bodies to their soul and spirit." All persons, therefore, eating flesh on fish days were to be fined for the first offence ten shillings, and ten days' imprisonment, with abstinence from flesh during the period; and for the second offence, the punishment was to be doubled: but sick and aged people might obtain licences of exemption from the proper authorities. In the reign of Elizabeth the penalties were increased by an "Act for the maintenance of the Navy." But anxious to avoid the imputation of leaning to Romanism by patronising fish, proclamations were issued threatening the queen's displeasure against those who should attribute the injunctions to any but politico-economical motives. Without explanation, it would be somewhat puzzling to trace a connexion between abjuring flesh, feeding on fish, and maintaining the navy.

The consumption of salted herrings and other seafish was not particularly burdensome at the period to which we are referring, because the means of raising food for fattening cattle in winter being then unknown, there was only salted meat to be had from the commencement of that season until the spring renewed the luxuriance of the pastures. But in proportion as fresh meat came within reach of the population, the use of salted fish was abandoned, while,

though improved intercommunication brought fish from the sea further into the interior in a fresh state, such was the cost of carriage that only the wealthy could avail themselves of the supply. Hence to those engaged in the fisheries, the employment became unprofitable, owing to the market for the produce becoming more limited; for a good take so completely glutted it, that while part of the cargo was sold off cheaply, the remainder was wasted for want of consumers. Still, as a nursery for seamen, attempts were made by the government to uphold the trade by various expedients, such as the grant of a lottery for three years to those engaged in it, a collection in the churches, and the obligation imposed upon all victuallers and coffee-house keepers to take a certain number of barrels of herrings yearly. These sapient measures refer to the time of Charles II. More recently, a system of bounties was resorted to, with the abolition of the tax on the salt used in curing fish, while the duty still remained heavy on that article in general. The bounty system, radically vicious, and now abolished, only operated to depress the genuine fisherman, by enticing speculators to the commerce, eager to grasp the reward, while depending upon credit for their outfit. Fast stage coaches, steamers, and now railways have materially brightened the prospects of the fisheries, by extending the market for the produce; for owing to rapid means of transport, fresh fish is supplied to parts of the country where not long ago it was scarcely known as an article of food. At the same time the fishermen are enabled to send the fruit of their toils to the old marts, without danger of the cargo being spoiled by detention on the passage from contrary winds. Cod

and other fish caught in the Atlantic, on the west coast of Ireland, can be conveyed quite fresh to the marts of Birmingham and London; while the fishermen who chiefly supply the metropolis, instead of sending the perishable commodity in sailing vessels to the Thames, put it on board the steamers which pass along the whole eastern coast, or sometimes land their cargoes near the fishing-grounds, as at Hull and other ports, from whence the transit by rail to London is accomplished in a few hours.

The more important fisheries will be noticed in detail; but it does not fall within the scope of this work to notice those which are prosecuted in distant waters, as the Newfoundland, the northern and southern whale fisheries.

SALMON FISHERY.

The salmon, at the head of an interesting finny tribe, to which the trout belongs, has been called the "king of fresh-water fish," but is alternately an inhabitant of fresh and salt water, migrating between the ocean and the rivers. Izaak Walton, in allusion to this peculiar habit, quaintly remarked, that “like some persons of honour and riches which have both their winter and summer residence, he has the fresh rivers for winter and the salt-water for summer to spend his life in." The fish advances in autumn up the rivers for the purpose of depositing its spawn, and returns to the sea in spring after having accomplished this task. A clear gravelly site, over which there is a shallow but active current, is sought for the purpose, which brings the migrant towards the head of the stream to find it. Extraordinary efforts

are made in the ascent to overcome obstacles, as

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