THE TECHNOLOGIST. [March 1, 1865. 



dbO FOREIGN AND HOME 



The above tables did not include the Channel Islands oyster fishery, 

 which employs forty-two boats and 200 men. On the adjacent coast of 

 France, at the four ports of Granville, Cancale, St. Malo, and Dinan, 

 426 vessels and 2,938 men are employed. The French have lately set 

 a good example in establishing oyster parts on different parts of their 

 coasts with great success. In the year 1859, M. Coste, of the Institute, 

 who had been so successful in his endeavours to stock the rivers of 

 France with salmon, was authorised by the Emperor to establish oyster 

 beds in the Bay of St. Briduc, about thirty miles to the westward of 

 St. Malo ; these have proved so successful that it is understood they are 

 being extended to Brest, Be, Oleron, and elsewhere on the west coast 

 of France.* This has been done in England at Alnmouth, where the 

 Duke of Northumberland has recently formed oyster beds, which are 

 thriving well ; he has also established beds of mussels to enable the 

 fishermen to supply themselves with bait close at hand, without having 

 to go to a distance to procure it.f 



In Scotland on the east coast, the herring fishery is carried on from 

 the shore, and, with the exception of some half- decked boats at 

 Fraserburgh, entirely in open boats, which, partly on account of the 

 shallow harbours, are found by experience to be most convenient for 

 the purpose ; the boats vary much in form, the Buckie or Moray Firth 

 boats appear to be the best ; but the very raking stem and sterupost 

 are objectionable, as rendering the boat unsteady when sailing before 

 the wind. The boats are from thirty-six to forty feet in length by 

 thirteen feet breadth of beam, and they cost from 401. to 701. On the 

 west coast four- fifths of the Loch Fyne herring boats are half-decked, 

 greatly to the safety and comfort of their crews. The number of boats 

 employed in the thirteen districts into which the east coast is divided 

 is about 13,000, and on the west coast about 2,500 boats, making a 

 total of 15,500 boats, manned by 60,000 men and boys. 



In Ireland much of the fishing is carried on in open boats ; but on 

 the south coast the Kinsale hooker is used to go off to the Nymph Bank, 

 which lies about forty miles off shore, extending from Waterford west- 

 ward nearly to Cape Clear, and also for trawling along shore. The 

 hooker has the reputation of being a good sea-boat ; but this would 

 seem to be its only good quality ; the bow is very full, and the quarter 

 so lean that the mast is not only obliged to be placed far forward, but 

 to be stayed over the bows, in order that the boats, when under sail, 

 may not be always flying up in the wind. On the iron-bound coast of 

 the west, from the Shannon to Galway, the fishermen use a canoe, a 

 framework of ash covered with canvas, which each time they land they 

 are obliged to haul up on to the cliffs. Altogether the fishery employs 



* See 'Voyage d'Exploration sur le Littoral de la France et de 1'Italie,' par M. 

 Coste, 2eme edition, Paris, 1861. 



t Since the date of this report the subject has occupied much attention, and 

 the establishment of oyster beds on our coasts is becoming more general. 



