260 France. 



two kinds of craft ; (1) small undecked boats hailing from little ports in the district, Berck, 

 Cucq, Etaples, Equihen, Le Portel, Ambleteuse, Audresselles, &c., which are worked chiefly 

 by superannuated seamen and by apprentices ; (2) the larger decked boats, after they have 

 returned from their deep-sea fishing ventures, and as a sort of aftermath. Both' the large and 

 the small number about 300, of nearly 4000 tons, manned by 1800 hands. They brought into 

 the market in 1882 fresh fish of a total value of 4,097,592 fr. 



To the various items above must be added a sum of 179,505 fr. as the value of in-shore 

 fishing, including shrimping, mussel-gathering, crab-catching, &c., which, considering that it 

 frequently does not require the use of boats, bears the official name of Peche a pied, because it 

 is practised by old men, women and youths on foot. 



The French fisheries are occasionally supplemented by imports from abroad, Great Britain 

 bein^ the only country which brought up fish into France via Boulogne. Thus, in 1881, 

 170,535 kilog. of fresh herring and 1,255,313 kilog. of other fresh fish were landed and passed 

 from England, besides 3564 kilog. of smoke-cured herring, and 3416 kilog. of sundry kinds of 

 wet-cured fish. 



The most sedulous attention and care have of late years been brought by the Boulogne 

 fish merchants and curers to bear upon the various modes of preparing fish for the home and 

 foreign markets, whether curing operations were conducted on board their boats afloat or in 

 their town establishments. They thus have secured new outlets for their produce, not only 

 throughout France and in conterminous countries, such as Switzerland and Italy, but in far 

 more distant regions, for instance, the Baltic provinces and the United States of America : 

 they even have established a remunerative trade in England itself, and in Ireland. 



Sea fishing is beyond contest the prime and most precious industry of the Boulogne dis- 

 trict, inasmuch as numberless trades, callings, professions, and industries are dependent 

 upon it to such an extent as to swell the total returns of the operations connected with sea 

 fisheries in the station to one million pounds sterling a year. 



Neither is this the sudden result of adventitious inflation ; it must be held as the steady 

 regular development of an ancient condition of things, which from small beginnings has 

 culminated to this brilliant climax. Going no further back than the year 1821, it is on record 

 that fishing operations realized 1,287,712 fr. ; they nearly doubled their returns within the next 

 decade, yielding 2,211,675 fr. in 1830, and then 2,500,000 fr. in 1843; in 1868 they sprang up 

 to 7,091,724 fr., and advanced to 9,668,827 fr. in the decade following; they now stand at 

 10,439,605 fr. for 1882. 



The chief causes which have thus made Boulogne the largest, foremost and most pros- 

 perous fishing station in France, may be stated briefly in the manifold improvements systemati- 

 cally adopted by the fish merchants and shipowners of the district, which concerned both the 

 size, lines and rigs of the boats and the nets, in the introduction of steam power, and in the 

 new markets opening abroad year after year for produce of a higher character. 



Dredging operations, which have now been persevered in for more than a twelvemonth at 

 the mouth of the harbour, with a view to clear away the sand bar which obstructed it, and 

 sundry other operations not yet fully completed in the fairway, have already resulted in 

 opening the harbour to the fishing flotilla, and to a large portion of merchant ships, for 

 17 hours daily out of the 24. 



There is a sure promise held out and on the eve of realization, that within a few months 

 the harbour of Boulogne, frequently but unjustly reckoned as a mere fishing port, will be made 

 accessible all day long, and without let or hindrance, not to fishing ships and boats alone, but 

 also to the large merchantmen, both sailers and steamers, which usually resort to its wet dock 

 for the purpose of taking up or discharging their cargoes. So, even before that grand under- 

 taking, the deep-sea harbour, now constructing in the west of the present tidal harbour, is 

 ready to receive the shipping, free access to and exit from the present harbour and docks of 

 Boulogne, regardless of the state of the tide, will be secured and realized. 



Among the various items contemplated and prepared in connection with that scheme of an 

 ocean harbour intended to supersede the present tidal harbour, special landing quays and 

 stages have been devised for the fishing flotilla which has placed and maintains Boulogne at the 

 head of the whole list of the fishing stations in France. 



(Compiled l>y the Department of the Minister of Marine in Paris.) 



