THE BRITISH FISH TRADE. 37 



But a different rule is applied to mackerel, and permission 

 is given for its sale either before or after Divine Service on 

 Sunday. The distinction probably arose from the convic- 

 tion that a rich oily fish like the mackerel, which commonly 

 reached London in hot summer weather, could not be 

 kept fresh for the additional twenty-four hours. The strict 

 observance of the Sabbath, however desirable it might be, 

 could not compensate for the loss of valuable food. Mackerel 

 used usually to be taken in the English and in the Bristol 

 channels, but of late years a large fishery for this fish has 

 sprung up at Kinsale in the south of Ireland. The fishery 

 is attended by English, Scotch, Manx, and Irish boats, and 

 is every year extending further and further round the south- 

 west coast. The Irish inspectors compute the value of the 

 mackerel caught off the coast of Kerry and Cork at nearly 

 ;^l50,ooo, but a further sum must be added to this amount 

 for the fish taken off the coast of Clare. It is probable that 

 the Irish mackerel fishery thus produces a gross sum of 

 ;^ 175,000 annually : if the whole of the Channel fisheries 

 for mackerel is only of the same value as those off the Irish 

 coast, the mackerel fishery of the British Islands must be 

 worth ;^ 3 5 0,000 annually. 



Thus the drift fishermen, fishing for surface fish, are 

 dependent for their harvest on herrings, mackerel, sprats, 

 and pilchards.* If the yield of the herring fishery may be 

 placed at ;^ 2,000,000 ; that of the mackerel fishery at 

 ;^3 50,000 ; that of the pilchard fishery at ;^ 50,000—;^ 36,000, 

 for the foreign, and ^^14,000 for the home trade — it will 



* These fish are not, of course, solely caught with drift nets. 

 Herrings in Loch Fyne are caught with a ground seine net ; or, as it 

 is locally termed, a trawl net. Pilchards are also largely, and mackerel 

 occasionally, caught with seines. Sprats are caught with seines in 

 some places, and in stow boat nets in the estuary of the Thames. 



