Page:A tour through the northern counties of England, and the borders of Scotland - Volume II.djvu/51

 manned, and managed by experienced and active coasting seamen. There are now thirteen or fourteen vessels, of from seventy to one hundred and twenty tons burden, carrying ten or twelve men each, constantly employed between Berwick and London, each of which perform, upon an average, fourteen voyages in the year. There are four, five, or six, sail regularly every week, and frequently perform the voyage in three or tour days; and several have gone from and returned to Berwick with cargoes within a fortnight. This regular trade was at first erected for the ready conveyance of salmon fish, manufactured here for the London market, and still is and must remain its principal support. The consequence of the salmon fishing here may appear from the following tolerable exact statement:-The yearly rentals oi tia fisheries in the Tweed, for the course of a few miles, amounts to between 7000l. and 8000l. in which between seventy-five and eighty boats, with about three hundred men, are constantly employed during the salmon fishery, between the 10th of January and the 10th of October. There has been known to have been forty thousand kits or upwards sent from this town in the course of the season, besides a vast quantity of salmon trouts sent alive to London; the number of kits has not been so great for