282 CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY OF THE HERRING-FISHERY. 



" I left Dublin on the evening of Saturday the 9th 

 of October, and reached Bristol the following evening. 

 There I learned that the chief supply of fresh fish to that 

 important market is received from the coast of Devon, by 

 the Bristol and Exeter and the South Devon Eailways. 

 The trade is exclusively carried on by extensive fish- 

 mongers, who have their agents at Brixham and Dart- 

 mouth, and sell only in their own shops ; none but the 

 coarser description of fish being exposed in a public 

 market. Bristol is, however, generally supplied most 

 abundantly, and at prices, the moderation of which quite 

 surprised me. Salmon may be said to be the only fish 

 for which they depend on Ireland, with occasionally some 

 baskets of soles and turbots from Waterford. 



" The fishery regulations of this important district are 

 chiefly embodied in those appended to the Convention 

 with France, confirmed by the Act 6 and 7 Victoria, 

 chap. 79, with this addition, that the 2d section of that 

 Act especially saves, and, to a certain degree, amends or 

 explains an Act j)assed in the 13th and 14th Charles II., 

 chap. 28, for the especial regulations of the pilchard 

 fishery in the counties of Devon and Cornwall. 



" This last recited Act establishes the principle of a 

 close time, or fence months, from the 1st of June to the 

 last day of November, during which time it is interdicted 

 to take any fish of any kind with any drift-net, trammel, 

 or stream -net, or any other nets of that sort or kind, unless 

 it be at the distance of one league and a half at least from 

 the respective shores. A former statute, 3 James I. 

 chap. 12, and a subsequent one, 2 George I. chap. 18, 

 contained stringent regulations in reference to the size of 

 meshes of nets, and even the dimensions of the fish which 

 it should be lawful to bring on shore. 



