8i 



given, and for my purposes at present will answer so far as 

 to force the consideration of this important matter not only 

 upon the Government and leaders of opinion in Ireland, 

 but likewise upon the minds of those in this country who, 

 for private gain or sympathy with the poor, would like 

 to see utilized all practical means for providing their 

 sustenance. 



The inland waters of the 32 counties as given in this 

 most truthful publication amount to 574,887 acres, and 

 the production from them is chiefly confined to the com- 

 paratively few tons of salmon and eels which are supplied 

 from the large lakes into or from which rivers run, and both 

 these fish are restricted from price to the class of luxury. 

 My next move, after contemplating my figures, was to 

 discover from the resources of the Exhibition whether 

 indeed such a treasure of industrial and food resource did 

 lie at our command under the smooth waters of our inland 

 lakes hitherto unutilized. England could find me no 

 information except in a book on ponds, by Marshall, some 

 1 20 years ago, though I believe, if my classics had not 

 been like the neglected waters, Caesar would have informed 

 me that the Romans provided for their certain supply by 

 ponds in Britain. Ireland too has sundry local names which 

 prove that our ancestors there those who, like myself, have 

 a portion of the blood of the breechless Bryan Boroohne 

 secured to the religious houses the necessary piscatorial 

 supply ; but what I could not obtain from the old country 

 herself, her reliant and provident children of the West 

 voluntarily and kindly afforded ; and it is to the extraor- 

 dinary in the broadest sense of the word knowledge and 

 experience of my friend, the United States Commissioner, 

 that I am indebted for the following facts. 



In the United States the cultivation of fish is not left 

 VOL. VII. C. G 



