OUR SEA FISHERIES. 251 



boys obtained an excellent livelihood. The mode of 

 fishing was greatly improved ; craft of a superior 

 size and better gear introduced; and the number 

 of fishermen and boys was increasing rapidly, when 

 jealoTis clamour was raised by some ten or a dozen 

 half-fishermen — half-farmers, and the consequence 

 was, that they got the trawling prohibited on the 

 best grounds, leaving only the rocky and foul ground, 

 where it could not be prosecuted., I believe, however, 

 that very lately some modification of this state of 

 things was introduced by the Board ; but a serious 

 blow had been dealt to the prosperity of the fisheries 

 *and the fishermen, which they wOl take years to 

 recover from. In Galway Bay, the same outcry 

 was raised by the Claddagh men but lately, because 

 better and' larger boats than they possessed were 

 trawling in the bay. In such cases, it is requisite 

 that the Board should use the utmost discrimi- 

 nation in the rules and boundaries which they lay 

 down, as well as in taking evidence upon all such 

 matters, 



It cannot be doubted, from the evidence afforded 

 in the able papers so often referred to, that the 

 Irish iisheries are capable of improvement to an 

 extent now hardly dreamt of, and that a mine of 

 wealth, sufficient to maintain the peasantry in afflu,- 



