Fish and Shell-Fish.

Of late years, fish of several kinds and a large number of lobsters and crabs have been sent from Guernsey to Southampton, and thence to London. So important has this trade become that it has entirely altered the local prices,-fish and crustaceans which, a few years ago, were extremely cheap, and varied in price according to the quantity taken, having now a standard price, regulated in some measure by that of London, and not unfrequently being higher than in London itself.

Turbot is one of the principal fish exported. It is caught sometimes in very large quantity, and extremely fine, and has been sold even within the last few years at three pence per pound in Guernsey, but this is not likely to happen under the new arrangements. Of other fish, the red mullet and John Dory are sometimes common, and are now sent away.

The number of lobsters taken weekly from the various lobster-pots round the coast of Guernsey is estimated to average 4,000, of which not more than 500 are consumed in the island. A fixed price is given for all animals above a certain length, and those below are paid for at half price.

Crabs are more numerous in the market than lobsters, fewer being exported cray fish are very fine, but not being thought equal to lobsters in the London market, they are chiefly retained for home consumption. Shrimps and prawns are common enough on the coasts of the larger islands, and in the sandy bays, but are little cared for, and seldom brought to market in Guernsey. They are more taken in Jersey, and cheaper. The larger prawns are very fine, but the smaller and best kind of shrimp is neglected. There is a productive oyster ground between Jersey and

*This crustacean is not the real cray fish (Astacus fluviatilis) which is a river species and small. It is the spiny lobster (Palinurus vulgaris) of naturalists, and attains a length of eighteen inches. It is almost equal to the lobster for the table.

France, whence are obtained large supplies. Nearly 200,000 tubs of oysters were exported from Jersey in 1856-7, and almost as much in some former years. This trade is interfered with by the French, and squabbles frequently arise among the fishermen of the two countries. The trade is carried on at Gorey on the east coast of Jersey. The cut in page 511 represents the sands in Grouville Bay, near Gorey, with one of the characteristic stone anchors of the island in the foreground. The harbour of Gorey is represented in former illustrations. See page 372 and also page 469.

In the year 1860, 165 vessels were engaged in the oyster trade, having a tonnage of 3,230 tons; employing 888 men; supplying 98,110 tubs of oysters, whose average value, estimated at 4s. 10d. per tub, was £23,733. On 86,610 tubs, there was also a freightage amounting to £3,789, making a total estimated value of £29,522. Only two-thirds of the vessels and men employed belonged to Jersey. Besides the hands employed in dredging, about 250 men and women are employed in the oyster parks in sorting, loading, and unloading oysters.

It seems, however, certain that the oyster beds are becoming impoverished, partly by over-use, and partly by neglect and fishing at improper seasons. There can be little doubt that many places on the coast, both of Jersey and Guernsey, are weli adapted to the growth of oysters by artificial culture, a method most successfully adopted in France, and requiring little more than shelter from certain enemies.*

*The following extracts from an excellent article on Fish Culture, in the "Cornhill Magazine" for February, 1862, may afford useful suggestions to those interested in this subject :-" M. Costa has superintended the laying down of a great number of new oyster beds on the coasts of France, and has repeopled a number that had been exhausted by over-dredging. His mode of engineering an oyster bed is exceedingly simple, and is founded on the knowledge that all that is required to secure a few millions of oysters is a resting-place for the spat. He makes up a foundation of old bricks, tiles, fragments of pottery-ware and shells, and over these he plants a forest of strong stakes, round which are twined luxuriant

The Ormer (aureille de mer), a beautiful univalve shell, is eaten in the islands, and the shells were at one time largely exported to Birmingham, to be worked into the papier maché manufactures of that town. The iridescent nacre of the shell was used in this way, but seems now not to, be required.

Cattle and Sheep, Pigs and Poultry.

Although it can hardly be said that cows are bred in the Channel Islands for exportation, there is still a considerable amount of profitable export business carried on relating to them. In the year 1860, Jersey exported 1,138 cows and heifers, and Guernsey about 500, the value of each cow of pure breed being from £14 to £18. In the year 1861, the export from Jersey had increased to 1,819 beasts. A much larger number than this total has, no doubt, been advertised for sale in England as "Alderney cows" alone, but since the whole stock of cattle in that little island does not exceed 400 head, and certainly not more than fifty heifers are sent away annually, it may be well to state that not only are the real Channel Island cows almost all from the larger islands, but that the balance is made up chiefly of small Breton cows, whose value in Britany is little more than £5 each.

While a certain number of cows are always exported from the islands, there is also a large import of oxen and other cattle for food. This amounts to upwards of 6,000 head of oxen and calves for Jersey, and nearly 2,000 for Guernsey; about 15,000 sheep and lambs for Jersey, and 5,000 for Guernsey. These imports naturally vary a good deal from year to year; but as the population is now stationary, these figures will give a sufficient general notion of the demands of the respective populations. branches, to which the seedling oyster may become attached, and then laying down a parent stock of breeders, he patiently awaits the result, knowing well that in the course of four years there will be an abundant supply of marketable oysters. The full cost of an oyster bed is ten pounds."

CATTLE AND POULTRY.

511

Besides material for beef and mutton, Jersey also imports from 3,000 to 5,000 head of swine. Most, if not all these, come from the neighbouring coasts of France.

The beasts imported from France are generally sold in Jersey fit for killing, and the meat is cheap and good. Guernsey is supplied with very inferior animals that often require fattening in the island. The price of meat in Guernsey is always considerably higher than in Jersey, owing to a very foolish arrangement by which the number of butchers in the latter island is strictly limited, and the trade monopolized. Meat is not allowed to be sold in Guernsey except in the markets of St. Peter Port and St. Sampson's, and then only by the licensed and authorized persons. The small income thus received is at the expense of a heavy loss to the community.

Upwards of a hundred tons weight of dead poultry and nearly ninety thousand living individuals were imported into Jersey in the year 1861, chiefly from France, and a corresponding number entered Guernsey. There is no export of these articles of food.

MISCELLANEOUS MANUFACTURES.

There are several small manufactures in the islands of Jersey and Guernsey, but few of these are on a sufficient scale to admit of export. The most interesting are (1) the manufacture of iodine, which has been for some time steadily carried on in Guernsey to some extent, but admits of large increase; (2) the preparation of a kind of arrowroot from the roots of a species of Arum, also introduced into Guernsey some years ago from Brazil; and (3) a manufacture of dried grass, called Han.

Kelp and Iodine.

The source of supply of iodine is the sea-weed growing on the rocks round the Channel Islands, or drifted in from the Atlantic. It is called Vraic, and has already been alluded to more than once in these pages. An account of this as a source of wealth to the islands has been reserved to the present chapter; and the subject is one of no slight importance, although the manufacture is but little developed.

The sea-weed cut from the rock (vraic scié) is generally a mixture of three species of Fucus (F. vesiculosus, F. serratus, and F. nodosus). The drift weed (vraic venant) is a Laminaria (either L. digitata, or L. saccharina). Many algæ are mixed with these, but the species referred to form so much the largest proportion that we may neglect the others in estimating the general nature of the supply.

Before proceeding to any further detail, it will be advisable to quote analyses of these weeds, as giving a definite idea of their relative value for economic purposes. They are as follows, the per centage of water being given in the first line of the table