212 FISH CULTURE. 



deal of valuable information in respect to trawling. 

 This information, I regret to say, is too extended and 

 diffuse to be given here ; but I gather from it that, 

 owing to the want of proper boats and gear, and the 

 ignorance of the proper soundings and localities, vast 

 ranges of most valuable trawling-ground upon the 

 Irish coasts are utterly unproductive. And another 

 cause has contributed to render some of them com- 

 paratively so viz., that boundaries were set by the 

 Fishery Board, where trawling was prohibited, upon 

 some of the very best and most productive spots, 

 owing to the ignorant and jealous prejudice evinced 

 by some of the small-boat fishermen, who could not 

 prosecute anything but the most meagre form of line 

 and net fishing. 



In some places, as at Dingle for example, Mr. 

 Andrews had succeeded in establishing very remu- 

 nerative fisheries, in which hundreds of men and 

 boys obtained an excellent livelihood. The mode of 

 fishing was greatly improved; craft of a superior 

 size and better gear introduced ; and the number 

 of fishermen and boys were increasing rapidly, when 

 jealous clamour was raised by some ten or a dozen 

 half-fishermen half-farmers, and the consequence 

 was, that they got the trawling prohibited on the 

 best grounds, leaving only the rocky and foul ground, 



