FISHING STATIONS— ENGI.xVND. 179 



boats in tliiiily-popiilated districts in Scotland and 

 Ireland liave not been enumerated ; whilst, on the 

 other hand, boats which have been broken up or sold 

 will remain on the register unless notice be given for 

 their removal. Considering the general class of persons 

 to be dealt with, it is therefore not surprising that 

 great difficulties should be found in obtaining perfectly 

 accurate returns from year to year. However useful 

 these returns may be in future, if prepared on an in- 

 telligible s^'stem of classification, the latest and most 

 correct publication, that for 1872, gives nothing of 

 practical value as regards the size of the boats, or any- 

 thing by which the fisheries they aie used for can be 

 guessed. The number of First Class boats, those of 

 15 tons and upwards, is probably near the truth, 

 and they will include trawl, drift, line, stow-net, and 

 dredging boats up to the largest size. The Second 

 Class boats are also employed for these purposes as well 

 as for any other kind of fishing except, perhaps, in 

 some cases, for seaning ; for no matter how small a 

 boat may be, so long as she sometimes carries a sail and 

 is under 15 tons, she would go into the Second Class, 

 unless the registering officers exercise the discretionary 

 •power given them to put small boats which sometimes 

 carry a sail, into the Third Class. How often this is 

 done it is impossible to say, but in the returns of 

 English boats we find some under 10 feet keel in the 

 Second Class, and many over 20 feet, and a few over 

 30 feet, keel in the Third Class. According to the 

 present classification the Third Class boats may be such 

 as are used for anything with the exception of trawling 

 and stow-net fishing. More than half the fishing boats 

 in Ireland are placed in this class ; a large proportion of 

 them probably under the discretionary power we have 



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