FISHKIMKS. 



risn 1:1:1 r.s. 



numben were 336,896 cured, and 208,944 exported ; od in the year 

 1858, the number* were 636,122 barrel* cured, and 350,204 exported. 

 An end appear* to hare been put to the protective system by the 

 British Parliament, in the 10 & 11 Viet c. 91, withdrawing altogether 

 the fund* granted year by year for the promotion of the Scotch 

 fimheriei ; and, in the 21 * 22 Viet c. 69, exacting a fee for every 

 barrel or half barrel of herrings on which the government brand in 

 imposed, a valuable advantage that had heretofore been conferred on 

 these trader* altogether at the public expense. The same act repeal* 

 nundry vexatious provision* of previous statutes which had impeded the 

 trade and increased the expense of the traffic without any advantage in 

 return ; it prohibits the use of certain nets and certain methods iu 

 taking the fish; it prescribes a uniformity in measures; and thus 

 surrenders the traffic to the fostering care of private interest and the 

 salutary effect of public competition. 



The Irish fisheries generally continue still to be stimulated by 

 public grants from time to time, without any intention thereby of 

 giving effect to a policy which experience and principle have con- 

 demned, but to meet the unfortunate circumstances of that country 

 by furnishing immediate employment to the poor in a traffic more 

 legitimate than the making of public roads that are not wanted, 

 inasmuch as it may become remunerative to the fishermen, and 

 advantageous to the public without the need of extraneous support. 



A select committee of the House of Commons was appointed in 1833 

 to inquire into the state of the British Channel fisheries. A second 

 committee was appointed in 1836 to consider the state of the salmon 

 fisheries in Scotland ; and in the previous year commissioners hod been 

 instructed to investigate the condition of the Irish fisheries. From 

 each of these bodies reports proceeded which were laid before Parlia- 

 ment, and which contained a considerable amount of information upon 

 the subject. We will present here a few of the leading facts, corrected 

 by the results of inquiries of later date. 



The appointment of the committee in 1833 arose out of the distress 

 which was at that time said to affect the several Channel fisheries, and 

 in its report the committee stated that these fisheries were generally 

 in a very depressed and declining state ; that they appear to have been 

 gradually sinking since the peace in 1815; that the capital employed 

 did not yield a profitable return ; that the number of vessels and of 

 the people to whom it gave employment had diminished ; and that the 

 fishermen who formerly could maintain themselves and their families 

 by their industry were in a greater or less degree pauperised. The 

 chief causes of this unfavourable change were considered to be, the 

 interference of the fishermen of France and Holland ; and the great 

 and increasing scarcity of all fish which breed in the Channel, com- 

 pared with what was the ordinary supply 15 to 20 years earlier, operat- 

 ing prejudicially to the fishermen, at the same time that a continued 

 fall of prices hod token place in the markets. The depressed state of 

 the British fisheries is most easily explained by supposing that the 

 foreign fishermen, of whose interference such grievous complaint was 

 made, were better skilled and more persevering in their calling than 

 our own countrymen : a supposition which seems to be borne out by 

 the circumstance of our having, since this report was delivered, been 

 still more abundantly supplied with fish for our tables ; while the cry 

 of distress on the part of the fishermen has passed away, doubtless 

 owing to the greater degree of skill and industry which they have since 

 exerted. There was, on the other hand, a complaint preferred against 

 the fishermen by the owners of the boats, who alleged that, having 

 advanced all the capital necessary for the undertaking, and having 

 probably also contributed to the support of the men during the dead 

 season, under the faith of an agreement to receive at stipulated prices 

 all the produce of their nets, the men so bound to them sold a con- 

 siderable part of the fish which they caught to boats despatched from 

 the coast of France. These circumstances have been mentioned, be- 

 cause a great and it is thought a groundless impression was created by 

 the result of the inquiry of 1833, which inquiry, it has been alleged, 

 was undertaken to satisfy the desires of certain interested parties who 

 wished to make out a case for the interference of government. 



These Channel fisheries have been the occasion of much jealousy 

 between England and France, and of continual wrangling between the 

 fishermen of the two countries ; they were at length, in 1839, made 

 the subject of a convention between the two governments, and the 

 stipulations contained therein have been embodied into the law of this 

 country successively by the 6 & 7 Viet c. 79, and the 18 & 19 Viet 

 c. 101. 



Stvw-Boat FlAery. One peculiar branch of fishery is the Stow-boat 

 fishery. ' This fishery prevails principally upon the Kentish, Norfolk, 

 and Essex coasts; and the object is the catching of sprats, not for 

 food, but as manure for the laud, for which there is a constant demand. 

 It fluctuates considerably, according to the price of other agricultural 

 manures, and to the abundance of the shoals of fish. 



PUekanl Piihtry. The pilchard fishery, which is carried on upon 

 parts of the Devon and Cornish coasts, is of some importance. The 

 pilchards visit our shores in August and September, and again in 

 November or December : they come in Urge shoals into shallow water. 

 As soon as caught they are salted or pickled and exported to foreign 

 markets, chiefly to the Mediterranean : the average export amounts to 

 80,000 hogsheads per year. 



Jl-rriny PuAtry. The extent of the British herring- fishery has 



already been noticed. The places where it is principally carried on 

 are Yarmouth, Lowestoft, Hastings, Folkestone, Cardigan Bay, and 

 Swansea, in England and Wales ; the courts of Caithness, Sutherland, 

 Aberdeenshire, Banffshire, Horayahira, and Ross -shire, in Scotland ; 

 and Oalway, Killybcgx on the coast of Donegal, Mayo, the estuary of 

 the Shannon, the coast between Dingle Bay and Kenmare, Bautry Bay, 

 Waterford, and from Mirvn-head to Cahore point on the Wicklow coast, 

 in Ireland. The principal herring-fishery off the coast of Norfolk and 

 Suffolk commences in September and ends in the beginning of De- 

 cember. Mackerel fishing begins 1st Hay, and ends 1st July. No 

 material changes have occurred in the seasons, but herrings are more 

 numerous of late years on the Yorkshire coast 



Salmon Pitkery. Our chief salmon-fisheries are carried on hi the 

 riven and actuaries of Scotland. As no bounty has been at any time 

 payable upon the taking or exporting of this kind of fish, there are no 

 means of ascertaining its actual or comparative amount Great interest 

 and activity have in recent years been evinced by noblemen and the 

 landed gentry, with much success, in promoting the breed of salmon, 

 and the protection thereof has long been on object with the 1 

 Parliament, who by various Acts, 1 Qeo. I. c. 18; 58 Oeo. III. 

 6 & 7 Viet c. 33; and 11 & 12 Viet. c. 52, have prescribed certain 

 regulations, and prohibited the taking of fish at certain periods of tli.- 

 year, with the some end in view. The produce of the fishings in the 

 rivers Dee, Don, Spey, Findhorn, Beauly, Borriedale, Langwell and 

 Thurso, and of the coasts adjacent, are conveyed in steam-boats and 

 small sailing vessels to Aberdeen, where they are packed with ice in 

 boxes and sent to the London market, either by steamers or by rail- 

 way. The most productive salmon-fisheries in Ireland ore situated 

 near the mouths of the rivers, on nearly all parts of the coast 



ilcftrrel Fishery. Mackerel ore fish of passage which visit every 

 part of our coasts in the spring and early part of the summer, and ore 

 taken in great abundance. In this country they are used fresh, and 

 great quantities are conveyed by rapid railway journeys from the coast 

 to London. The general desire to obtain this fish in perfection has led 

 to the well-known relaxation of our laws against Sunday trading, which 

 permits the open hawking about of mackerel on that day : a practice 

 which is punishable with regard to any other fish, or indeed to articles 

 of any kind, with the exception of milk. 



The principal fisheries on the eastern coast of England are in thc< 

 neighbourhood of Whitby, Hartlepool, and Kobin Hood's Bay. The 

 fish-markets of the great towns in the interior are now supplied more 

 abundantly than ever with fish, through the agency of railways. 



Cud PitJiery. The cod fishery at Newfoundland was carried on as 

 early as 1500 by the Portuguese, Biscay ans, and French; but it was 

 not until 1585 that the English ventured to interfere with them. In 

 that year Sir Francis Drake, being sent to the island with a squadron, 

 seized the foreign ships which he found engaged in the fisher, 

 sent them to England, where they were declared lawful prizes. In 

 1610 a company was incorporated for the some purpose by Kin-; 

 James I., and so successfully was the fishery prosecuted, that iu 1614 

 there were near 200 vessels engaged iu it ; in the following year the 

 number exceeded 250. The English fishermen were, however, closely 

 pressed by those of France, who had sundry advantages in their favour. 

 By the treaty of Utrecht, which acknowledged the sovereignty of the 

 whole island of Newfoundland to be in the crown of England, the 

 privilege of fishing on part of the coast was reserved to France, not- 

 withstanding which the English fishery there increased to a great 

 extent. The resort of the United States fishermen to the coasts of 

 Newfoundland for the purpose of sharing in this remunerative traffic 

 began early to excite the jealousy of the British fishermen, and the 

 quarrels arising in consequence appealed so strongly to the peculiar 

 sympathies and pride of the respective countries, that armed vessels 

 were sent to the fishing-ground, nominally to preserve peace and order, 

 and serious apprehensions were created as to the possibility f main 

 taining the peaceful relations between the two governments. At length 

 a treaty was concluded in 1854 between England and the United 

 States, and the stipulations of it became the law of this country by 

 the 18 & 19 Viet c. 3. By this treaty, the right of taking all kind of 

 fish except shell-fish, and curing and drying fish, is granted t>< thr 

 fishermen of the United States on the sea-coasts, shores, ba\ 

 harbours of Canada, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward's 

 Island, and with some modification, Newfoundland. The principal 

 fisheries of Newfoundland are prosecuted on the banks whirli nearly 

 surround that island ; the object of these fisheries is solely cod-fish. 

 .Salmon, mackerel, herrings, and some other kinds of fish are taken off 

 the coasts of the island ; and the seal fishery is carried on success- 

 fully, yielding a considerable number of seal-skins and a large quantity 

 of seal-oil for exportation. These fisheries may be said to be the sole 

 pursuit of the settlers in Newfoundl.mil, nntl of the trader* v.h.i 

 frequent the island. Nearly every family has a small piece of land 

 under garden cultivation, but agriculture is not pursued as a sub- 

 stantive occupation. 



Whalt Fithery. The whale fishery was carried on successfully 

 during the 12th, 13th, and 14th centuries, by the Biscayans. The 

 whales taken by them in the Bay of Biscay appear to have been of a 

 smaller species than those since found in more northern latitudes. 

 The Biscayon fishery has long ceased, owing probably to the great 

 destruction of the animals. It is to tin- voyagers who, near the IMK! of 



