104 BRITISH INDUSTRIES. 



the comparatively sheltered and productive waters of 

 the Minch, between the outer islands and the mainland. 

 But there is no part of the coast of the United King- 

 dom in which there is less interest taken in sea fishing, 

 or apparently fewer fish of any kind to be caught, than 

 on the western coast of England and Wales that 

 which bounds one side of the Irish Channel. No 

 doubt the Irish Sea is notorious for bad weather ; but 

 the Irish side of it furnishes a larger supply of fish of 

 various kinds, than all the rest of the Irish coasts 

 together. It may be that there is some peculiarity of 

 the bottom on this side affecting the supply of food for 

 the various fishes, and they are, consequently, not 

 attracted to that coast ; or there may be, possibly, ob- 

 jectionable warm currents setting along that shore; 

 but the fact remains, that there are apparently fewer 

 fish on the western side of England and Wales than 

 on any other part of the British Islands. 



Comniencing, then, at Carlisle, we find, besides a 

 little inshore line-fishing, and occasional drifting for 

 herrings by a few boats, that trawling from the White- 

 haven, Fleetwood, and Liverpool districts is the most 

 important fishery on the north-west of England. But 

 even the trawling grounds are only sufficiently pro- 

 ductive at certain seasons of the year. The supply of 

 fish on them fluctuates very much in successive years, 

 and the trawlers are in the habit of changing their 

 ground at regular times. The principal localities for 

 this trawling are between the Isle of Man and the Eng- 

 lish coast, and in Carnarvon and Cardigan bays ; and 

 during the last few years, from fourteen to twenty-two 



