TRANSPORTATION. 69 



Ireland and Scotland) collected in small hamlets and 

 villages, in such localities as were best adapted for 

 catching, drying and shipping fish. Thus distributed 

 along the coast, they were generally widely separated, 

 and intercourse was maintained mostly by sea, or by 

 rude paths through the woods and rocks between 

 neighboring settlements. Had the clearing and culti- 

 vation of the soil been combined with fishing, the 

 construction of roads would have become an absolute 

 necessity; but the selfish policy established by the 

 mother country, at the bidding of the English capital- 

 ists who carried on the fisheries, effectively prevented 

 colonization. That policy was to keep the island 

 solely as a fishing station, in order to train seamen for 

 the British navy. All grants of land were prohibited, 

 the cultivation of the soil was made a penal offense, 

 and for a long time a most vigorous attempt was made 

 to make the fishermen migratory by carrying them 

 home at the close of each season to return the follow- 

 ing summer. In 1790 one of the Governors publicly 

 announced that he "was directed not to allow any 

 possession as private property to be acknowledged in 

 any land whatever which is not actually employed in 

 fishery." In 1799 Governor Waldegrave ordered 

 fences which had been erected, enclosing a piece of 

 ground, to be torn down, and prohibited chimneys 



