ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 



The following table of the areas of catchment basins from which, 

 through their tributaries, the principal rivers of Ireland derive their 

 supply of water, is taken from Sir Robert Kane's " Industrial Resources 

 of Ireland," having been mostly supplied to him by W. Mulvany, Esq., 

 Commissioner of Drainage : 



Shannon, 



Barrow, Suir, and Nore (Waterford), 



Erne (Ballyshannon), . 



Foyle (Derry), . 



Galway Waters, 



Bann, Upper and Lower (Coleraine), and the 



Black water, co. Waterford, 



Boyne and Blackwater, in Meath, 



Moy, .... 



Slaney, .... 



Lee, .... 



Lifiey, Dodder, and Tolka, 



Blackwater (Armagh), 



Main and Inny (Killarney), 



Feale and Gale (Listowel), 



Eoughty (Kenmare), 



Bandon, . . . 



Lagan (Belfast), 



Main, 



Total Basin, 

 Square Miles. 



4,544 

 3,400 

 1,585 

 1,476 

 1,374 

 1,266 

 1,219 

 1,086 

 1,033 

 815 

 735 

 568 

 526 

 511 

 479 

 475 

 228 

 227 



1 O'DoNELL is the second best lord in Ulster, and hathe lords under him 

 as O'Neile hathe ; he is the best lord of lishe in Ireland, and he exchang- 

 eth fishe allwayes with foreign merchants for wyne, by which his call 

 in other countryes the king of fishe/ Carew MS., Lambeth Palace, 

 614, p. 181. 



' There are many ancient Acts of Parliament in the statute books for 

 the preservation of the salmon, and still more in the Scotch* statutes ; 

 the reason of this particular attention arose from salted fish, and espe- 

 cially salmon, forming great part of the winter's provision, which 

 appears by the accounts of stores for the religious houses, in Dugdale's 

 Monasticon. 



' Not only private houses relied upon a supply of salted fish, for the 

 winter's consumption, but armies, at this time, could not be marched or 

 subsisted without them ; there is, in Rymer, an order of Edward the 

 Second, to provide 3,000 dried salmon for this very purpose. Thus, 

 likewise, Monstrelet, mentioning the defeat of the English, and their 

 convoy being taken, says, "Que grande partie du charoy des dits 

 Anglois etoient charges de harenc, et a ceste cause la battaille fut ap- 

 pelle la battaille des harens." 



VALUE. A<j*eturn, showing the number of fisheries in the Unions 

 in Ireland, and their present rating in poor law valuations, was laid 

 before the Select Committee of the House of Commons in 1849.J 



* ' By one of the black acts, it is made penal in Scotland to take any salmon for 

 the space of three years, which must have been very difficult to enforce, as it 

 made one of the great staple commodities of the country for exportation.'. 

 Harrington on the Statutes, p. 110. 



f Report of Select Committee on Inland Fisheries, 1849, p. 223. 



