The produce of salmon fisheries in Ire land is also considerable.
Salmon fishing commences on the 1st of February, and terminates on the 14th of September. The intervening period is called close-time,' and the acts for regulating salmon fisheries impose penal ties on those who take fish during this season.
Mackerel visit every part of our coasts in the spring and early part of the sum mer, and are taken in great abundance. For the encouragement of the mackerel and other similar fisheries, the carriages in which the fresh fish are conveyed to London are exempted from the post-horse duty. As mackerel will not keep, it may be hawked about on Sunday for sale, a privilege which no other fish enjoys.
The cod fishery at Newfoundland was carried on as early as 1500 by the Portu guese, Biscayans, and French, but it was not until 1585 that the English ventured to interfere with them. In that year Sir Francis Drake being sent to the island with a squadron, seized the foreign ships which he found engaged in the fishery. and sent them to England, where they were declared lawful prizes. In 1614 and 1615 the English had 200 and 250 vessels engaged in the Newfoundland cod fishery. Towards the end of the seven teenth century it was carried on on a still larger scale by the French ; and it is stated by the author of ' Considerations on the Trade to Newfoundland,' inserted in the second volume of Churchill's Col lection of Voyages,' that the French have quite beaten the English out of this trade, as may be instanced in many of the out of our nation, and particularly Barnstaple and Biddeford, which for merly employed in this trade above fifty ships, and now do not fit out above six or eight small ships.' By the treaty of Utrecht, which ac knowledged the sovereignty of the whole island of Newfoundland to be in the Crown of England, the privilege of fishing on part of the coast was reserved to France, notwithstanding which the English fish ery there increased to a great extent. In 1763 there were taken and cured by the English at the fisheries of Newfoundland 386,274 quintals or hundred-weights of cod-fish, and 694 tierces of salmon, be besides 1598 tons of fish-oil. In that year there were 106 vessels employed in carrying on the fishery, 123 ships for con veying the fish when cured to England, and 142 ships for its conveyance to British colonies. The principal fisheries of Newfoundland are prosecuted on the banks which nearly surround that island : the object of these fisheries is solely cod fish. Salmon, mackerel, herrings, and
some other kinds of fish and seal are taken off the coasts of the island.
The cod-fish cured and exported to England and to foreign countries in 1785 amounted to 591,276 quintals ; in 1832 to 619,177 quintals: in 1833 to 883,536 quintals ; in 1837 to 835,559 quintals, which were valued at 520,2401. The products of the Newfoundland fisheries exported in 1832 was 583,687/. ; in 1833, 699,1741. ; and in 1837, 843,9031., as under : • Value.
£ Cod, dry—quintals 83r,559 520,240 „ wet—barrels . 648 1086 Herrings—boxes and barrels . . 2078 1416 Salmon—boxes and barrels. 3834 8552 Other sorts of fish 627 Seal-skins—No. 353,648 34,044 Oil, train and sperma ceti—gallons 2,084,375 277,938 The value of the exports of fish in 1832 amounted to 458,662/. ; in 1837 to 531,921/. ; and in 1842 to 528,540L, and with oils and seal-skins to 839,260/.
These fisheries may be said to be the sole pursuit of the settlers in Newfound land, and of the traders who frequent the island. Nearly every family has a small piece of land under garden cultivation, but agriculture is not pursued as a sub stantive occupation.
In 1818 a convention was concluded between the United States government and that of Great Britain for regu lating the fisheries on the coasts of the British American provinces. By the first and second articles the in habitants of the United States were to have for ever, in common with the sub jects of Great Britain, liberty to take, dry, and cure fish in and on certain portions of the coast therein defined, and by the third article the Americans gave up all claim to take fish within three miles of any coasts, bays, creeks, or harbours, within the British dominions in America not in cluded in the limits defined. Some dis pute has arisen between the two govern ments respecting infractions of the Con vention. The Americans conceived that they were allowed to enter bays and fish if they kept three miles from the shore ; but by the British interpretation the pre scribed limit of three miles is to be mea sured from the headlands of bays, and that consequently the Americans were exclud ed from the interior of bays and inden tations of the coast. In 1843 the United States government acquiesced in this view of the case.