Purchaser, Thrice the Value of their Goods. This, they consider merely a Branch of Professional Dexterity, for when the Master or Mistress of a Family, selects an individual Fishwife, and relies upon her Honesty, for receiving Articles as Cheap, as they can be procured in the Market, she seldom fails to act Honorably, and in their Transactions with the Shopkeepers of EDINBURGH, whom they sometimes supply with Herrings, their fair Dealing is altogether unimpeached.

It has been remarked, that though a considerable Degree of Licentiousness appears, in their Freedom of Speech, it does not seem to have tainted their Morals, there being no Class of Women, it is believed, who offend less against the Seventh Commandment, excepting in Words, than they do. There seems to be no Employment, that conduces more to Health and good Spirits, some of them have been delivered of a Child, and have gone to EDINBURGH on foot with their Baskets, within a Week. It has been noticed by Dr. BEDDOES, that the violent Exercise which they take, and the excessive Heat, into which they sometimes bring themselves, has no Tendency to produce Consumption, and that the

Complaints, in other Respects, to which they are liable, are chiefly of an inflammatory Na

ture.

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Dr. MOORE, Father of the Heroic Sir J. MOORE, used to relate this Anecdote. A French Student of Medicine, lodged in the same House in LONDON, with a Man ill of a Fever, and who was teazed by his Nurse to drink, although he nauseated the insipid Liquid she offered him; tired with her Importunity, he pettishly said, bring me a Salt HERRING, and I will drink as much as you please:" the Woman indulged his Request, he devoured the HERRING, drank plentifully, underwent a copious Perspiration, and recovered: whereupon the French Student wrote this Aphorism in his Journal," a Salt Herring cures an ENGLISHMAN in a FEVER," when this Gentleman returned to FRANCE, he prescribed the same Remedy, to his first Patient in a Fever. The Party died: on which this Caveat was inserted in his Diary. N. B.

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Though a Salt Herring CURES an Englishman, it KILLS a Frenchman.”

MACKEREL, are said by PONTOPPIDAN, to be fond of HUMAN Flesh. A Sailor be

longing to a Ship, lying in one of the Harbours, on the Coast of NORWAY, went to bathe, his Companions suddenly missed him, but he was shortly seen on the Surface, with numbers of MACKEREL fastened on him. Assistance was speedily rendered, though the Fishes were with some Difficulty forced from him, but it came too late, for the Man died. Multitudes of Mackerel are taken on our Coast, at Times they sell exorbitantly dear, but chiefly, in the opposite Extreme. The First BRIGHTON Boat of Mackerel, sold the 14th of May, 1807, at BILLINGSGATE, for FORTY GUINEAS per Hundred, (Seven Shillings each), the highest Price ever known, at that Market. The next Boat that came in, reduced their Value to THIRTEEN GUINEAS, per Hundred. In 1808, these Fish were caught so plentifully at Dov ER, that they sold, SIXTY for a Shilling. At BRIGHTON, in June, the same Year, the Shoal of Mackerel was so great, that one of the Boats, had the Meshes of her Nets, so closely occupied by them, that it was impossible to drag them in. The Fish and Nets, therefore, in the End, sank together, the Fisherman thereby sustaining a Loss of nearly Sixty Pounds, exclusive of what his Cargo, could he have got it into

the Boat, would have produced. Whilst enumerating the Prices, which Mackerel have brought under certain Circumstances, we may notice those of some other SEA Fish, (which vary extremely in their first Handling by the Fisherman, and subsequent Value in the Market,) and shall also mention any particular Profusion, in their Capture.

A. D. 1809, the Whitings, in the River EDEN, were more numerous than ever before remembered. CARLISLE was supplied with them, at the very low Rate of Three Pence per pound. At King Garth, the last Week in July, Eleven Hundred were taken at One Draught.

On a young Lady of the Name of WHITING.

THESE LINES WERE WRITTEN BY AN OFFICER.

Sure Whiting is no fasting Dish,

Let Priests say what they dare;

I'd rather have my dainty Fish,
Than all their CHRISTMAS fare.

So sweet, so innocent, so free,
From all that tends to Strife,

O, happy Man! whose Lot shall be,
To swim with her through Life.

Whatever Bait, Love e'er could make,
To catch my Fish I'd try;

I'd be a Gentle for her Sake,
Or artificial Fly.

But VENUS, Goddess of the Flood,

Does all my Pray'rs deny,

And surly MARS cries "D-n your Blood,
You've other Fish to fry."

In February 1809, SOLES were sold on BRIGHTON Beach, for Nine Shillings per pound, for the LONDON Market.

LOBSTERS are abundant, and caught with Nets in the ORKNEY Islands. They are kept in Chests, till the Smacks arrive, which have large Wells in their Holds, for containing the Fish, and carrying them alive to the LONDON Market, (near a Hundred Boats are employed, with ten Men each,) and though the Lobsters are sold for Two-pence Sterling a-piece, a good Fisherman, will gain Ten Pounds in the SUMMER. As a Counter view: "In March, 1807, TEN small Lobsters, not weighing collectively, Two POUNDS, sold at BILLINGSGATE, for TEN GUINEAS."

Sixty Thousand Lobsters, have been sent in One Season, from the MURRAY FIRTH; the

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