[2] The half-bushel measure at Billingsgate is double quantity--or, more correctly, a bushel.
The season for the street-fishmongers begins about October and ends in May.
In October, or a month or two earlier, may-be, they generally deal in fresh herrings, the supply of which lasts up to about the middle or end of November. This is about the best season. The herrings are sold to the poor, upon an average, at twelve a groat, or from 3_s._ to 4_s._ the hundred. After or during November, the sprat and plaice season begins. The regular street-fishmonger, however, seldom deals in sprats. He “works” these only when there is no other fish to be got. He generally considers this trade beneath him, and more fit for women than men. Those costers who do sell them dispose of them now by weight at the rate of 1_d._ to 2_d._ the pound--a bushel averaging from 40 to 50 pounds. The plaice season continues to the first or second week in May. During May the casualty season is on, and there is little fish certain from that time till salmon comes in, and this is about the end of the month. The salmon season lasts till about the middle of July. The selling of salmon is a bad trade in the poor districts, but a very good one in the better streets or the suburbs. At this work the street-fishmonger will sometimes earn on a fine day from 5_s._ to 12_s._ The losses, however, are very great in this article if the weather prove bad. If kept at all “over” it loses its colour, and turns to a pale red, which is seen immediately the knife goes into the fish. While I was obtaining this information some months back, a man went past the window of the house in which I was seated, with a barrow drawn by a donkey. He was crying, “Fresh cod, oh! 1-1/2_d._ a pound, cod alive, oh!” My informant called me to the window, saying, “Now, here is what we call rough cod.” He told me it was three days old. He thought it was eatable _then_, he said. The eyes were dull and heavy and sunken, and the limp tails of the fish dangled over the ends of the barrow. He said it was a hanging market that day--that is to say, things had been dear, and the costers couldn’t pay the price for them. He should fancy, he told me, the man had paid for the fish from 9_d._ to 1_s._ each, which was at the rate of 1_d._ per pound. He was calling them at 1-1/2_d._ He would not take less than this until he had “got his own money in;” and then, probably, if he had one or two of the fish left, he would put up with 1_d._ per pound. The weight he was “working” was 12 oz. to the pound. My informant assured me he knew this, because he had borrowed _his_ 12 oz. pound weight that morning. This, with the draught of 2 oz. in the weighing-machine, and the ounce gained by placing the fish at the end of the pan, would bring the actual weight given to 9 oz. per pound, and probably, he said the man had even a lighter pound weight in his barrow ready for a “scaly” customer.