Supply of Fish in Great Britain. 349 
The return shows a diminution, within the last twenty 
years, of 10,583 boats and 52,127 men. 
The numbers given for the last year, however, reduced 
as they are, appear to be very large as compared with the 
produce of the fisheries indicated by the railway returns, 
and the supplies in the principal markets. But it has been 
explained to us that a very small portion of the 40,000 men 
and boys included in the return, are fishermen in the true 
sense of the term. A further return classifies the boats 
and men as follows :— 
ee | Vessels. Men. Boys. 
First-class vessels, which include 
the tonnage of fifteen tons 
and upwards - - - 978 4,559 475 
Second-class, under fifteen tons S322) - 32,875 2,055 
Making a total of - - - 9,300 | 37,416 | 35530 
The great decline in number of the fishermen in Ireland 
we believe to be wholly due to the effects of the famine of 
1848, and the subsequent emigration. It might have been 
anticipated, that during the famine, the fishermen at least 
would be secure from its ill effects, and would not only 
have plenty of food for themselves, but would be the 
means of averting starvation from others. But such was 
not the case. It was found that the people would not live 
wholly on fish, nor would they, out of the small means 
remaining to them, buy fish in preference to meal or 
potatoes. The fishermen, therefore, suffered not only from 
the loss of their own crops of potatoes, but from want of 
market for their fish. They shared, to the full extent, in 
the sufferings of the famine, and as most of them became 
physically incapable of going to sea, it was frequently 
found that men were starving while fish were in abundance 
on the coast. In many parts of Ireland, the fishing popu- 
lation has not yet recovered from the depression and ruin 
caused by the famine ; and the subsequent emigration, by 
taking off the youngest and the ablest of the fishermen, 
and leaving behind the old, the feeble, and the incompetent, 
has still further operated, not only in reducing the numbers, 
