ish spring fishery is wonderfully interesting. Herring and
mackerel are in huge shoals anywhere from five to forty miles off the
land, and the vessels run in and out each day bringing back the catch
of the night. Each vessel shoots out about two miles of net, while
some French ones will shoot out five miles. Thus the aggregate of nets
used would with ease stretch from Ireland to New York and back. Yet
the undaunted herring return year after year to the disastrous
rendezvous. The vessels come from all parts. Many are the large
tan-sailed luggers from the Scottish coasts, their sails and hulls
marked "B.F." for Banff, "M.E." for Montrose, "C.N." for Campbelltown,
etc. With these come the plucky little Ulster boats from Belfast and
Larne, Loch Swilly and Loch Foyle; and not a few of the hereditary
seafaring men from Cornwall, Devon, and Dorset. Others also come from
Falmouth, Penzance, and Exmouth. Besides these are the Irish
boats--few enough, alas, for Paddy is not a sailor. A good priest had
tried to induce his people to share this rich harvest by starting a
fishery school for boys at Baltimore, where net-making and every other
branch of the industry was taught. It was to little purpose, for I
have met men hungry on the west coast, who were trying to live on
potato-raising on that bog land who were graduates of Father D.'s
school.

There was one year when we ourselves were trying out the trawling in
Clew Bay and Blacksod, and getting marvellous catches; so much so that
I remember one small trawler from Grimsby on the east coast of England
making two thousand dollars in two days' work, while the Countess of
Z. fund was distributing charity to the poverty-stricken men who lived
around the bay itself. The Government of Ireland also made serious
efforts to make its people take up the fishery business. About one
million dollars obtained out of the escheated funds of the Church of
England in Ireland, when that organization was disestablished by Mr.
Gladstone, was used as a loan fund which was available for fishermen,
resident six months, at two per cent interest. They were permitted to
purchase their own boat and gear for the fishery out of the money thus
provided.

While we lay in Durham Harbour at the entrance to Waterford Harbour,
we met many Cornishmen who were temporarily resident there, having
come over from Cornwall to qualify for borrowing the money to get
boats and outfit. During one week in which we were working f