Ashtabula weekly telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1880-1886, 1880-12-24
BnlIn Esgate Fish Market, london.

VINO Woulu see bllllngagato AZ lt8
busiest musk skbe there by i've o'clock in
the morning, for at five O'Clock, all the
year round, the policeman, permanent
ly appointed to this post, rings the great
bell, and at the first tone of its iron
tongue the iron gatee, river side and
city side, are unbarred, and swinging
wide open, admit such concourse
as is not seen in any other city under
the sun. Men in SO. called white smocks
with head dresses partly felt, partly
leather, some with leaves of leather
hanging half way down their back make
furious rushes from Lower Thames
Street to the river side, where they are
met by fellow-laborers. who have
reached there by some mysterious
means already and who search about
eagerly for work to do. The steamers
which have been out for days in search
of the fleet of fishing-boats from the
North Sea and which may have over
hauled them close to Heligoland, or
nearer to or farther from our shores,
are moOred alongside the dummies by
the landing and into each of these are
lowered two timber gangways, up one
of which climb the pOrters with trunks
of fish upon their heads, while down
the other trip other porters with their
empty boxes or trunks, as they are in
differently called, ready for a fresh
load. These steamers may have arrived
in the river during the early morning,
or they may have come late the pre-
vious afternoon; or should your visit be
fixed for Monday, they may have been
there from Saturday afternoon, lying
lazily in the sulloCating weather, which
is not calculated to improve the flavor
Of the cargo. But there are also ice
ships about and the knowledge of their
presence lends a sentimental coolness
to the atmosphere.
Now the streets become noisy with
the arrival of carriers carts from the
railways, whose systems touch the sea,
or carry river fish from Scotland or
from Ireland. Of course, the Irish and
Scotch salmonare the most highly priced,
for those of the English rivers are not
rated so highly, and the produce of the
Norway rivers stand at the lowest fig
ure in the market. But for this class of
fish the season is nearly if not COM
pletely at an end, for the speckled trout
goes out of fashion at the close of the
Parliamentary session, with its lordly
relative, the silver-coated salmon. Cod
and skate, which lie about in all direc-
tions, are just coming in, and while had
docks and plaice seem numerous enough,
turbot and oysters are rather shy of put
ting in plentiful appearance. Norway
Holsters are not Just now in season, so
that one visiting the market at present
loses the sight of their sorting in the
haddock-rOom," ever the ground floor
market, a sight well worthy of behold
ing.
As six and seven o clock approach the
business becomes fast and furious. The
fish arriving by boat and by rail are be-
ing rapidly sold of, for the most part
by auction. There is but little time to
haggle about prices; the market figures
are tOlerably well established almost
from the moment the gates are un-
barred, and customers are too anxious
to obtain their required supply, and to
carry it off to distant parts of the me-
tropolis, to waste time in beating down
for pence, for shillings, or even for
pounds sterling. From the steamers
and the Dutch eel boats, hung with
cages round the sides, and fitted with
wells inside to keep the fish alive; from
the heavy barges laden with shrimps,
which are shoveled like grain into bas-
kets, or with mud-coored founders
caught by and beyond Blackfriars
bridge; from the railway vans in the
narrow roadways, crowded with flat-fsh
and fresh-water fish, or with huge
baskets running over with Shiny eels,
the pOrters make their way in and out
of the market The numerous narrow
byways that radiate from the base of
the " tall bully that lifts the head and
lies" in Latin are thronged with cos
ter-mOngers' carts and barrels, so that
for the general public these so-called
thOroughfares are positively impossible
up to nine or ten o'clock.
AS the market exists, its business is
carried on with all possible propriety;
and taking into consideration that its
lowest chamber, which, by the way, is
scarcely ever used, is ten feet below the
level of the river, it is kept remarkably
dry. This has to be effected, however,
by means of steam power, which keeps
continually pumping the water out from
under the flooring, and which would, if
allowed to rise, flood the building in
thirty-siX hours. Strange to say, too,
this drainage is not water from the
river, for it is perfectly pure and taste
less, but is supposed to percOlate
through the earth from the Coal Ex-
change, opposite where it is said the
Romans of old had established spring
baths. s.-LOndOn Standard.