| Yarmouth | 630 |
| Faversham | 416 |
| Brighton | 60 |
| Dartmouth | 357 |
| Southampton | 193 |
| Maldon | 218 |
| Rochester | 363 |
| Colchester | 318 |
| Dover | 180 |
| Rye | 80 |
| Ramsgate | 170 |
Salmon is conveyed by rail in large boxes, covered with pounded ice, which preserves them fresh for six days, and sometimes in the summer months as many as 3,000 boxes of salmon are received at Billingsgate in a day. The salmon are sent to agents to be sold on commission at a profit of five to ten per cent., the agent taking the risk of bad debts, and the price varies from fivepence to a shilling a pound, according to the supply in market.
BREAKFAST AT BILLINGSGATE.
The best time to see Billingsgate is of a Friday morning between six and seven o'clock. The regular fish merchants come first and are served first, and then their places are taken by the Costermongers, or street pedlars, who buy the refuse, or what is left. Lower Thames street, above and below London Bridge, is sure to be crammed full of fish carts and fish porters running hither and thither with baskets of fish upon their shoulders, and it is noticeable that the lower part of every building is open and the spaces filled with fish of all kinds, chiefly smoked and preserved fish, which are exposed in large baskets and boxes for sale. The proprietors of these places, some of whom do business in salted and smoked fish with every part of the civilized globe, stand at the doors of their wholesale shops with large aprons upon them, although their bank accounts may amount to scores of thousands of pounds.
Up Fish street as far as the monument are long lines of carts waiting for fish, drawn by asses and horses, and around the monument may be seen a perfect circle of carts guarded by ragged boys, some of whom contract to take care of a dozen carts at a time for a penny a cart, while the Costers are purchasing the fish.
Formerly the consumption of spirits here among the buyers of fish was very great, but now at a very early hour in the morning a hot cup of coffee with a slice of bread and butter can be procured at any of the numerous coffee stalls for twopence-halfpenny.
The men and women are shouting and hallooing at each other as if they were mad. Old gentlemen who have a good appetite and come here to make a market for their families, are very often seen to enter the tavern called the "Three Tuns," which is in the market enclosure, and at which a fish dinner or fish breakfast of three dishes can be procured for eighteen pence. It is very puzzling at first to understand the cries, which come hard and fast from the mouths of salesmen and hucksters, costers and pedlars of newspapers, frequenters of coffee stands, and other trades people.
"Now, you mussel buyers," shouts one, "come along—come along—now's your time for fine, fat, greasy, mussels."
"All alive! al-ive oh—alive oh! Han-some cod! best in the market. All alive oh!"