PEKIODICAL VISITS OF THE HERRING. 71 



the other localities, and afifords employment and food to a 

 very great number of people, so many as 200 boats being 

 often employed at one time at this fishery. The Clad- 

 dagh fishermen, forming a great proportion of these, are a 

 peculiar race of men, inhabiting one quarter of the town 

 of Galway ; they are a hardy and industrious race, and 

 have laws among themselves regarding the fishery. They 

 make it a rule not to begin fishing till the 4th of Septem- 

 ber, nor until all the Claddagh boats are ready to proceed 

 to the fishery ; and it is their custom, when ready, to 

 apply to the clergymen of the West Convent Chapel in 

 Claddagh, one of whom proceeds with them to the fishery 

 the day they begin, and offers up a prayer for an abundant 

 fishing. It is said that they formerly, before beginning, 

 buried a cat on the beach, with the view of procuring a 

 successful fishing. The harvest fishing is pretty abund- 

 ant in the creeks and bays from Galway south to the 

 Clare coast. So many as 85,000,000 herrings have 

 been cured in one season in Galway, almost entirely in 

 bulk. 



Kerry. — Off Seafield herrings visit the coasts from the 

 middle of January to March, They are larger than, and 

 inferior to, the Galway herrings. At the mouth of the 

 Shannon they may be caught from the beginning of July 

 to November. 



Dingle Bay. — Here the herring shoals sometimes con- 

 tinue from July to December. 



Valentia. — Near this place the take of herrings is 

 often very considerable, from the circumstance of the 

 fishermen using deep-sea seines (which will be described 

 elsewhere). One of these nets has been known to take as 

 many as 80,000 to 100,000 herrings at one haul. 



South Coast — Kenmare. — Herrings are caught at Ken- 



