368 DEEP-SEA PISHING. 



profitably woi^ked by botb trawlers and line fishermen ; 

 but for the latter, larger boats are required than are 

 usually employed on the south coast. 



Trawling was carried on for a time in 1864 in the 

 open part of Waterford Harbour by means of a steamer, 

 and good catches of fish were made ; but the jealousy 

 of the native fishermen was excited, and it resulted in 

 their cutting away the vessel's net early one morning, 

 and in the steamer being afterwards given up. It was 

 intended to use this vessel as a carrier to bring in the 

 fish caught by some large trawlers which were being 

 purchased for working on the Nymph Bank ; but the 

 development of that fishery was interfered with by the 

 very fishermen who might have taken part in working- 

 it to advantage. It can hardly be a matter of surprise 

 that strangers should be unwilling to remain in a 

 neighbourhood where, as in this case, natives of the 

 locality met with such treatment. A better feeling, 

 however, appears to be gaining ground ; and recent 

 reports of the extension of trawling by large vessels on 

 parts of the Irish coast, where a few years ago it was 

 difficult to work with them, lead to the hope that the 

 " mine of wealth" which we hear so much of as being 

 unworked in Irish waters will gradually become deve- 

 loped, and, we trust, by native industry. 



Hake and sprats periodically visit Waterford Har- 

 bour, besides the choicer kinds of fish, and we were 

 told at Dunmore that " the sea was sometimes dry with 

 pilchards" along that part of the coast, although at 

 that time (1864) no attempt was made to catch them. 



Sprats are taken in fixed bag-nets ^ near Passage on 

 the Waterford river. 



' See Bag-nets, p. 1G6. 



