It is worthy of remark, that the semis is a fish pe culiar to South Wales, and is not found in any flyer east of the Wye, or north of the Teivy, but frequents all the intermediate rivers, which they visit annually about the beginning of June, and continue in season till the end of August, weighing from If to 4 or .5 lbs. each. The samlet is a small fish about nine inches long, and frequents all the rivers in which salmon and trout are found; and it has been con cluded, from the circumstance of a female mullet being utterly unknown, that they are the hybrid off spring of the female salmon and the male trout. As an article of food, they are excellent when fried, potted, or pickled.
In North Wales, the sea fish are of the same de scription as those of the southern coast; and the herring fishery in the bay of Caernarvon is, perhaps, the most flourishing in all Wales; but the badness of the roads, and the distance by sea from any great market, check the demand for fish, and discourage the people from following the occupation. A good road from Caernarvon into Shropshire, to open a di rect and speedy conveyance to the heart of England, where sea-fish is scarcely known to nine-tenths of the community, would be the-means of increasing the demand for this palatable and wholesome food, of which the supply, along the extensive coast of North Wales, is inexhaustible.
The sea-coasts of Ireland are as abundant, and] perhaps more so, in every valuable species of fish, those of Great Britain. Its numerous bays, creeks, inlets, lakes, and rivers, swarm with them. It is vi sited annually by vast shoals of herrings, and the banks near its shores are well stored with excellent cod, hake, and 'ling, equal in all respects to those caught on the banks of Newfoundland. With the westerly winds, which may be reckoned to blow foe nine months in the year, the produce of these fish eries might always be sent to ready markets at Bath, Bristol, Liverpool, and other great towns on the west ern and southern coasts of England ; yet, either from indolence, want of inclination, or, which is more probable, want of capital, and most of all from want of proper regulations, the Irish have hitherto done little more than procure from-their fisheries a scanty supply for the chief towns, and the families of those who are resident near the coast- It would seem, indeed, that the Irish have not much taste for a seafaring life, few of their young men volunteering for the navy, while they go in shoals into the army; and those few who follow the occupation of fisher men are so much prejudiced in favour-of their own clumsy methods of proceeding, as to resist all at tempts at improvement. It is stated by Mr Whate ly, in his Hints for die I,nproseenesit of the Irish Fishery, that, when the trammel net was attempted to be introduced, by which, in a couple of hours, more fish might be taken than with their hookers in a whole night, such was the prejudice against this new mode of fishing, that the crews of the hookers, alarmed at the supposed diminution of their profit by the increased supply, combined together along the whole coast, and destroyed the trammel nets wherever they were discovered. There is, however, a species of trail not commonly made use of, which, according to the opinion of Mr Mitchell, is highly injurious to the Irish fisheries.
« The common method of fishing in this manner on the coast,"•says this author, " is with what they' call a beam-trail, or trail, which consists of a large beam, or pole, generally between twenty and thirty feet long, headed at both ends with large fiat pieces of timber, which resemble the wheels of a common cart; except that, instead of being round, like them, they are rather semicircular, or resembling a heart cut in two, lengthways. They are shod, like the
wheels of 8 cart, with iron. To this beam the trail net or bag is fixed, and at each end ropes are fas tened, by the help of which the ground is entirely swept so clean, that I have been assured a fisher _ man will venture to throw his knife or any other such small matter overboard, in thirty or forty fathom water, and readily take it up again ; and thus the ground is swept clean for a considerable tract ; at every put, as they call it, the boat commonly sailing a mile, or perhaps a league, before the bag and beam are hauled up.
" It has great inconveniencies; for, 1st, It sweeps and tears away all the sea plants, moss, herring-grass, &c. which some fish feed on, making those species to seek elsewhere for food. 2dy, It disturbs and af frights the larger kinds of fish, as cod,. ling, &c. in the same manner as if pursued by larger fish of prey. And, Silly, which is worse than all, these beam nets, and others of the kind which are dragged • along the ground, tear away, disturb, and blend up the spawn of many kinds of profitable fish, in a terrible man ner; and often many hogsheads of their spawn are drawn up in the trail bags, in which may be distinct ly seen several thousand embryos of young fish." Under proper regulations, the Irish herring-fishery would no doubt equal, if not exceed, that of North Britain. At present no pains are bestowed in the salting and gutting of them. In some parts of the coast, they are thrown into holes dug in the earth, and there salted, frotn whence they are sent in bulk to Cork, and other places, to be put into barrels. Loch Swilly is one of the principal bays for the her ring-fishery. The salmon-fisheries in the North of Ire land might be rendered very valuable. That of Cole raine is, perhaps, the most productive; five hundred to nearly a thousand fish being sometimes taken at a sin gle draught. They are mostly pickled for exportation. ' If the information be correct which is stated by Mr Fraser, in A Letter to Me Right Honourabk Charles Abbot, nothing can more strongly exemplify' the beneficial effects arising from the free use of salt without being subject to bonds, pains, or penalties, than those derived from the privilege granted by Parliament to the inhabitants of the Isle of Man, to import salt from England duty free, not only for curing fish, but for all other domestic purposes. " In the year 1784," says Mr Fraser, " I had the honour to be appointed by the Treasury to make an inquiry into the state of the revenue and fisheries of that island. I found that, at that period, without boun ties on their boats, or the tonnage of their fishing smacks, or any premiums ether than the free use of salt, they carried on a most extensive fishery, which employed 2500 seamen. IU the absence of the her rings, the fishermen supplied the consumption of the island in great abundance with white fish ; the agri culture was greatly increased, and the population consisted of 80,000 souls, having nearly doubled the number of its inhabitants in fifteen years." It fur ther appears, from the Report of the Committee of the House of Commons for the Fisheries in 1798, that their boats had increased, both in number and size; that from a burden of ten or twelve tons, they had now advanced from sixteen to twenty-two tons, of which the number exceeded 850, each employing seven or eight men; that they had, besides, from forty to fifty fishing smacks, from twenty to forty tons each, the whole employing upwards of 8000 seamen, which were then equal to the number of men and boys employed in the whole of the buss fishery of Scotland, supported by bounties to the ex tent of L.20,000 a-year.