110 



He continues, " The Russian official agents, to whom the superin- 

 tendence of this country has been confided, have been always perplexed 

 by the difficulty of reconciling the conflicting interests in this case; but 

 never was so rare and felicitous an expedient for the welfare of the 

 land thought of, or explicitly enounced, as that contained in the still 

 unexecuted scheme of M. Karnilof, who proposed, at one time, to the 

 government at St. Petersburg, that it should take into its immediate 

 possession all the valuable fisheries on the Obi, and lease them only to 

 Russians, for ' then,' he observes, ' the harmless and amiable Ostyaks, 

 to whom the sand-banks belong by inheritance, would at once, and for 

 ever, be relieved from the anxiety of retaining possession of them, and 

 nothing more would be heard of their troublesome complaints of local 

 injuries done to them. The fish-eating inhabitants might then learn 

 to support themselves on the nuts of the Siberian pine, or by catching 

 birds and quadrupeds; so engaged, they would not be troubled with 

 competitors, and might enjoy tranquillity of mind.' " 



CHAPTER XL 



THE SEA FISHERIES. 



THE mass of useful information collected by the labours of the 

 Commissioners of Inquiry, and their cautious and well-judged 

 Report, will always remain the beacon to guide proceedings in 

 the direction of improvement of this arm of national wealth 

 and naval strength. 



The following extracts from the Report, containing their 

 recommendations, will show how far the measures they pro- 

 posed were adopted or rejected, and serve those who may desire 

 to make further inquiries. 



With regard to the productiveness of the coasts of Ireland, 

 the Commissioners reported, " that the miserable and depressed 

 condition of the Fisheries is not in consequence of defective 

 natural resources: on the contrary, Ireland is a decidedly 

 favoured country as to the riches of its waters. With this fact 

 foreign nations were early acquainted, and their fishermen were 

 long accustomed to approach the Irish coasts, for the purpose 

 of fishing on ground superior to any near their own shores." 



The north-western coasts abounded in fish, but the means 

 of taking it were generally rude and inefficient. " It is in this 

 district that poverty especially prevails, that famines are of 

 ordinary recurrence, and that the means of the fisherman are 

 the most completely inadequate to a profitable pursuit of his 

 avocation. Here it is that the general condition of the country 

 offers the fewest auxiliaries to the philanthropist in his plans of 

 improvement, and that the Commissioners have found the 

 greatest difficulty in discovering any satisfactory and applicable 

 measure of relief." 



In the eastern waters a scarcity of fish was asserted, but 



