Our chief Salmon Fisheries are carried on in the rivers and testuaries of Scotland, but the annual value of this fishery is not exactly known. The produce of the fishings in the rivers Tay, Dee, Don, Spey, Findhorn, Beauly, Borriedale, Langwell, and Thurso, and of the coasts adjacent, are conveyed in steam-boats and small sailing-vessels to Aberdeen, where they are packed with ice in boxes and sent to the London market. Loudon is the great market to which Scotch salmon are sent. The quantity which arrives during one season is about 2500 tons, and the average price is from 10d. to 1 s. per lb.
Mackerel visit every part of our coasts in the spring and early part of the summer, and are taken in great abundance. As mackerel will not keep, it may be hawked about on Sunday for Sale.
The fisheries of Ireland, by the Act of 1842 have been placed under the regulation of the Board of Public Works, the commissioners of which prepare an annual report concerning them. In 1845 the commissioners registered 19,883 vessels and boats, and 93,073 men and boys as engaged in the Irish fisheries. The whole coast of Ireland is divided into 28 fishing districts.
The Cod Fishery at Newfoundland was carried on as early as 1500 by the Portuguese, Biscayans, and French, but it was not until 1585 that the English ventured to interfere with them. The French and English have still continued to fish there. The principal fisheries of Newfoundland are prosecuted on the banks which nearly surround that island : the object of these fisheries is solely cod-fish. These fisheries may be said to be the sole pursuit of the settlers in Newfoundland, and of the traders who frequent the island.
In 1818 a convention was concluded between the United States' government and that of Great Britain for regulating the fisheries on the coasts of the British American provinces. Conventions are also in force relating to the British and French fisheries in the English Channel.
The Whale Fishery will form the subject of a separate article. [IVIDa.n Fisumer.] The fish imported in 1848, and paying im• port duty, were Anchovies 161,100 lbs.
Eels 70 ship loads.
Salmon 1,344 cwts.
Turbots and soles 41 cwts.
of British taking) 99,147 cwts.