Fish, which is at once the most common of food and the most difficult to procure, has been esteemed by almost all peoples in all ages. Nevertheless, some tribes, even at the present day, reject fish altogether, whilst the Jews, in accordance with the law of Moses, abhor all fish destitute of fins or scales.

There are few sights more charming than that of a fleet of fishing-boats putting off to sea, or returning after a successful cruise, and in watching them we are apt to forget the perils which these 'Toilers of the Sea' must encounter in search of our table luxuries. No wonder that in boisterous weather, as the old Scotch song has it, 'Wives and mithers,' maist despairin', ca' them lives of men.' Yet along our coasts thousands of men, women, and children get their daily bread by various industries connected with the extensive fisheries, always a most important branch of commerce among seafaring peoples. There is first the making and -repairing of nets, the work mostly of women and children, although fishermen are also adepts in the mysteries of netting - an art handed down to us from the remotest ages, and practised by the most ignorant of savages, although requiring considerable skill. Nets, however, are now largely made by machinery. Then there is the manufacture of fish hooks of various kinds - from the harpoon for the gigantic whale to the delicate hook, with artificial fly attached, for the capture of the wary trout. The making of these artificial flies is an art requiring great skill, and the kinds made are innumerable, and many of them extremely natural and beautiful; but the South Sea islanders take almost as much pains with their fish-hooks, which are attached to a piece of highly-polished shell, to attract and dazzle the fish.

Angling has always been a fascinating sport to most men, although the spectator is rather inclined to agree with the cynic, who defined it as a rod with a worm at one end and a fool at the other; but it doubtless exercises the patience and skill as well as the strength of the fisherman, especially where the lordly salmon is the prey, for the landing of such fish as we sometimes see on the fishmonger's slab, must be a feat of considerable strength and agility, as well as patience.

The enthusiasm inspired by the sport was rather amusingly illustrated by a newspaper correspondent some time since, who wrote: - 'On one occasion in Ireland, our train was brought almost to a standstill by a river, "just to see if the gentleman would land his salmon," and not a single remonstrance was heard from the passengers, who entered into the matter as warmly as the driver and guard, and cheered enthusiastically when a fine fish was brought safely to the bank.'

To enumerate the various fishes good for food would be impossible. In a certain sense, the proverb, 'All's fish that comes to net' is literally true, for there is hardly a monster of the deep - from the great whale to the porpoise and the seal - that is not deemed good for food by some; whilst the tiniest of sea-creatures, such as whitebait and shrimps, and the ugliest, such as sea-slugs and anglers, are all esteemed delicacies by others. It will be remembered that the unfortunate Greely and his companions, during their terrible sufferings in the Arctic regions, had to sustain life for weeks on small shrimps, or sea-fleas; and many a shipwrecked mariner has been glad to gather limpets and mussels to appease his hunger.

Along the shores of Great Britain and Ireland the herring, 'Bonnie fish and halesome farin',' holds the first place among the fisheries, and many hundreds of boats are employed in this industry on the east and north coasts of Great Britain, Ireland, and the Isle of Man. In the latter interesting little island the herring is, or was, the staple food of the people, and the chosen emblem of justice, the deemsters or judges taking the singular oath that they will administer justice as evenly 'as the backbone of the herring lieth in the middle of the fish.' *

In Cornwall, the herring gives place to its first cousin, the pilchard, a smaller and fatter fish, from which a large quantity of oil is extracted. These pilchards, when cured as herrings, are known as 'fair maids,' and are largely exported to Italy and the south of France, where they are eaten by the peasantry during Lent. The pilgrims who visit Rome during Holy Week, and whose feet are washed by the noble ladies and gentlemen of the Eternal City, are all feasted (?) upon a dish of salad, with one of these pilchards on the top, and a roll of bread, not very substantial fare after a long and toilsome pilgrimage.

* The vast consumption of herrings in olden times may be judged from the fact that the tax levied upon almost all seaports, in the reigns of the early kings, consisted of from 50,000 to 100,000 herrings annually.

It is very interesting to see the process of curing the pilchards. As soon as the laden boats arrive, the fish are carried in baskets up the steep streets of the Cornish fishing-towns, where cellars exist devoted to this especial use; in these cellars semicircles are drawn on the floor, in accordance with the quantity of fish brought in; within these the fish are piled, all the heads outwards, making a heap as high as the fish belonging to each boat will allow, some heaps being three, or four, or even ten times as large as others; then gentle pressure is applied to the mass in order to express the oil, which runs, by means of grooves in the stone floor, into barrels placed to receive it. After this the fish are taken up and salted into barrels for export, the oil also being a valuable product.

Herrings are salted at once into barrels in Ireland, and Dublin Bay herrings are highly esteemed; but at Yarmouth and in Scotland they are rather differently cured, some being converted into the famous bloaters, whilst others are split open and put into a ham pickle, and sold as kippers, and others more heavily salted, smoked, and dried, become the palatable red herrings, or Digby chicks. Unfortunately, of late years many badly-cured herrings have been placed on the London Market under the name of Yarmouth bloaters; these consist of fish cured in London, being those fresh herrings remaining unsold, and already a little tainted before being salted, so that it has become almost impossible to obtain bloaters in perfection except in Norfolk and Suffolk.