, Skibbereen
and Bantry. The mackerel fishery is especially productive from mid-March
to mid-June. The Blackwater, Lee and Bandon, apart from the netting
industry, afford good rod-fishing for salmon, especially the first, on
which Lismore, Fermoy and Mallow are the principal centres. The loughs,
the upper waters of these rivers and their tributaries, frequently
abound in trout. Macroom, Inchigeelagh, Bandon, Dunmanway and Glandore,
with Bantry and Skibbereen, are all good stations.

_Communications._--The main line of the Great Southern & Western
railway, entering the county from the north at Charleville, serves Cork
and Queenstown. The Cork, Bandon & South Coast line runs west to
Skibbereen, Baltimore, Bantry, Clonakilty and Kinsale; and there are
also the Cork & Macroom line to Macroom; the Cork, Blackrock & Passage
to the western waterside villages of Cork Harbour, and the Great
Southern & Western branch eastward from Cork to Youghal; while from
Mallow a branch of the same system continues towards Killarney and the
south-western coast of Ireland. There is also connexion from this
junction with Fermoy, Mitchelstown and county Waterford eastward. The
Timoleague and Courtmacsherry line connects these villages with the
Clonakilty branch of the Cork, Bandon & South Coast Railway.

_Population._--The population (438,432 in 1891; 404,611 in 1901)
exhibits a decrease among the most serious of the Irish counties, and
emigration is correspondingly heavy. Of the total about 90% are Roman
Catholics, and about 70% constitute the rural population. The principal
towns are Cork (pop. 76,122, a county of a city); Queenstown (7909),
Fermoy (6126); Kinsale (4250), Bandon (2830), Youghal (5393), Mallow
(4542), Skibbereen (3208), Macroom (3016), Bantry (3109), Middleton
(3361), Clonakilty (3098), and among smaller towns Charleville,
Mitchelstown, Passage West, Doneraile and Kanturk. Crookhaven in the
extreme S.W. is of importance as a harbour of refuge, but the chief
ports are Cork and Queenstown. The county is divided into east and west
ridings, and contains twenty-three baronies and 249 parishes. Assizes
are held at Cork, and quarter-sessions at Cork, Fermoy, Kanturk,
Kinsale, Mallow, Middleton, and Youghal in the east riding; and Bandon,
Bantry, Clonakilty, Macroom and Skibbereen in the west riding. The
county is in the Protestant diocese of Cork, and the Roman Catholic
diocese of Cork, Cloyne, Kerry and Ross. There are seven parliam