304 IRISH WHITE FISHERIES. [CHAP. vn. 



even as many as fourscore of fish of a night a poverty which 

 can be better appreciated when we learn that 600 fish for 800 

 hooks is the catch for deep-sea fishing about Kinsale." I can- 

 not say much about the white-fish fisheries of Ireland from per- 

 sonal knowledge, but I have been informed on good authority 

 that the coast fisheries of that country are not half worked, and 

 consequently are not in such an exhausted state as those of 

 Scotland and England. The west coast of Ireland, from Gal- 

 way Bay to Erris Head north, and north-west to Donegal Bay, 

 is said to contain all the best kinds of table fish in great 

 quantities mackerel being plentiful in their season, as are 

 cod, hake, ling, and others of the Gadidee. As for turbot, they 

 can be had everywhere, and have been so plentiful as to be 

 used for bait on the long lines set for haddock, etc. Lobsters 

 and other shell-fish can likewise be procured in any quantity. 

 If the accounts given of the abundance of white fish on the 

 Irish coasts are to be relied upon, there must be a rare field 

 there for the opening up of new fishing enterprises. 



Prolific as our coast fisheries have been, and still are, 

 comparatively speaking, the North Sea is at present the grand 

 reservoir from which we obtain our white fish. Indeed, it has 

 been the great fish-preserve of the surrounding peoples since 

 ever there was a demand for this kind of food. All the best- 

 known fishing banks are to be found in the German Ocean 

 Faroe, Loffoden, Shetland, and others nearer home and its 

 waters, filling up an area of 140,000 square miles, teem with 

 the best kinds of fish, and give employment to thousands of 

 people, as well in their capture and cure as in the building of 

 the ships, and the development of the commerce which is 

 incidental to all large enterprises. 



It will doubtless be interesting to my readers to know 

 something about the general machinery of fish-capture, so far 

 as regards the British sea-fisheries. The modern cod-smack, 

 clipper-built for speed, with large wells for carrying her live 



