250 FISH CULTURE. 



already occupied in this matter. The size of all fish 

 which it is permissible to take is laid down in the 

 Act of the 1st of Geo. I. ; and tinder the sizes there 

 determined it should not be permissible either to 

 take fish, or to sell them, or have them in pos- 

 session. 



In looking further into the papers written by 

 Mr. Andrews upon the Irish fisheries, I find a vast 

 deal of valuable information in respect to trawling. 

 This information, I regret to say, is too extended and 

 diffuse to be given here ; but I gather from it that, 

 owing to the want of proper boats and gear, and the 

 ignorance of the proper soundings and localities, vast 

 ranges of most valuable trawling-ground upon the 

 Irish coasts are utterly unproductive. And another 

 cause has contributed to render some of them com- 

 paratively so — viz. that boundaries were set by the 

 Fishery Board, where trawling was prohibited, upon 

 some of the very best and most productive spots, 

 owing to the ignorant and jealous prejudice evinced 

 by some of the small-boat fishermen, who could hot 

 prosecute anything but the most meagre form of line 

 and net fishing. 



In some places, as at Dingle for example, Mr. 

 Andrews had succeeded in establishing very remu- 

 nerative fisheries, in which . hundreds of men and 



