THE SEA FISHERIES OF IRELAND. 379 



herrings vanished not to return until 1836, when again there was a big 

 fishing. 



In Galway, in 1820, 300 boats daily lined the quays, landing from 10,000 

 to 20,000 herrings each. At this time herrmgs were selling from 6s. to 

 JOS. per thousand. 



In 1835 and for some years previous to that date the best winter fishing 

 for herrings was off the coast of Connemara. 



After the famine years the herrmgs vanished, and the revival on the 

 Donegal coast, in the Rosses and Sheephaven, goes back for only eight 

 years or less. Now it is big enough to attract the consideration of well- 

 known curing firms, chiefly from Scotland, and it is a strange anomaly of 

 trade to see fast steamers daily starting for Glasgow with Irish herrmgs,. 

 both cured and fresh, and at the very same time fish merchants in Ireland 

 importing barrels of herrings in large numbers from Scotland. The her- 

 rings of the West of Ireland are of a very high class, and have taken top 

 prices in the North German and American markets. 



Besides the revival of herring fishing on the Donegal coast. West Mayo 

 is coming under its influence ; while Galway, Dunmore East, and other 

 areas, which seem to have their own peculiar herring fisheries, good seasons 

 as bad ones have come and gone, while far greater fluctuations have char- 

 acterised the fishing on the outer coast. Constancy, however, is unfortu- 

 nately conspicuous by its absence from the Irish herring fisheries. 



Fluctuations in Fisheries. 



The fluctuations indicated by these details are of importance because 

 they point to the fact, which must not be lost sight of, when development 

 of the fisheries is undertaken, that certain species of fish have periods or 

 cycles of abundance and of scarcity. In the case of the herring these cycles 

 are discoverable in old records, but in regard to other species, history 

 is not so helpful. For two hundred years the supply of mackerel on the 

 coasts of the New England States has been duly recorded, and it was fairly 

 constant until 1886, when it for some unexplained cause utterly failed. This 

 fishery on the Irish coast has no history beyond the memory of old men 

 still living ; but according to some of them mackerel, like the herring, have 

 had their periods of scarcity as well as cycles of great abundance. Abund- 

 ance, disappearance, and recurrence of haddock is a remarkable instance of 

 fluctuation in our coast fisheries well known to sea fishermen whose memo- 

 ries can take them back for forty years. 



Trawling. 



Trawling has been practised on the Irish coast certainly for a century, 

 and it is difficult to say for how long before. The most primitive form is the 

 pole trawl, still used on the South coast. In this case the net consists of a 

 bag and wings, the latter being kept distended by poles projecting from 

 each side of the hooker to which the ends of the warps are attached, in 

 large hookers the spread given by the poles is about fifty feet, but the 

 distance apart of the " hammers " or weights at the ends of the wings of the 

 net, could not, in ten fathoms of water, be more than twenty-five feet, and 

 in deeper water much less. About thirty-five years ago otters came into 



