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COUNTY CORK. 167
Nets used to take Mackerel by drifting, may be joined together to any length. Each
net is fifteen fathoms long, and twenty-five feet deep, roped and corked above, same as the
Herring-net, three inch mesh,—cost £l 5s. each net. Ten, twelve, or fifteen of these, are
used by each hooker having them.
Tlie Skad-net is nearly similar to the Mackerel-net.
Trammel-nets, used to mesh Hake by the gills or head; length of each piece twenty
fathoms, depth, four fathoms, or fifty-five meshes of five and a half inches each, roped
above and below,—cost £l 5s. each.
Hand lines used for catching most kinds of fish, round and fiat, cost according to their
length ; a deep sea line about fifty fathoms perfect, costs four shillings.
Long lines, length forty-two fathoms, a hook and link every one and a half fathom
asunder; forty-four of these generally to a hooker, making 1848 fathoms. Some hookers
have sixty such lines, or 11,088 feet—almost two miles.—a strong contrast when one con¬
siders the chance of such a number of baited hooks extending such a distance, with that of
ten hooks from hand lines fished from a hooker at anchor. The cost of the long lines is
about £8—{Mr. H. E. Roderick.)
Sprats, herrings, mackerel, gurnet, &c. are used as bait for Hake, herrings and mackerel Bait,
for Cod and Ling; lugs (which abound in this district) for Cod, Haddock, Bream, Fluke,
Dabs, and small fish; soft or small pill-crabs for Fluke or Flounders in harbours—these
latter fish are used for baiting lobster-pots very much. The crabs have a tough skin in
process of forming into a shell, and bear to be put on the hooks; they are used also for small
Cod, Fluke, Haddock, Whiting; and mussel for Ling, Bream, Whiting, Cod, &c.
Sugarloons, (whelks,) a shell fish, are used for Cod, Haddock, Whiting, Bream, &c.;
lugs (a kind of worm found in slob and strands) abound near Dungarvan and Youghal;
they are got by digging. Other bait is by no means abundant; quite the contrary. Many
kinds of bait are used with success in other places, not used here.
When fishers cannot supply themselves with some local bait, they sometimes run to Water-
ford for mussels, but this seldom. Local bait for long lines abounds in this district; and
when the weather permits, they may be used. I should have said one particular kind of
lugs. Mussels are obtained by dredges and crooks, in the harbours and the rivers flowing
into them. A scarcity, except of lugs, does exist, save when herrings and sprats are in.
I would propose to form mussel-banks, by importing and depositing them at Youghal, Dun¬
garvan, and in the Phanisk River, near Youghal, up which the tide flows,—to be protected
until fully established.
No mussel-banks have been established in this district, though the nature of the ground,
particularly in Youghal and Dungarvan harbours, is well calculated for such. Nature
established them, however, in those harbours, and up some rivers also within this, district.
The demand for them has much lessened the supply, and they are not easily had. None
of those fish are imported here. Hookers bring them to Dungarvan from Waterford, and did
formerly to Youghal, but were prevented taking them at Waterford..—{^Mr. H. E. Roderick.)
At Dungarvan and Youghal, the fishermen sell fish at the Quay, out of the boats, to Markets,
women, who retail them in the markets, and sometimes to fish-jolters or carriers, who
take the fish into the interior. In many cases, the fishermen's wives and daughters sell them
by retail. Herrings and Sprats are sold out of the boats in general by the owners ; they
are retailed in the market also. Along the coast, they sometimes save the fish, and some¬
times send it, or a part, to Dungarvan and Youghal. The carrying trade gives considera¬
ble employment when fish is plenty.
The supply of fresh or home-cm'ed fish is not equal to the demand of the local markets;
there is Scottish and Newfoundland fish used here. Two thousand barrels of Scotch Her¬
rings were imported into Youghal within the last twelve months; also into Dungarvan.
• There are not any houses here entitled to the name of curing establishments.
There ai-e no facilities for the fishermen to cure fish, by land proprietors or the public.
I think fish may be better cured if there were. I do not think the quality of the fish is
actually injured for want of such facilities; but I am of opinion the fish may be saved in a
better way.
Cured fish is in this district generally attempted to be dried on the strands and shores.
The plan of curing and trying to dry fish, is in this district miserably defective, when com¬
pared with the methods used in Newfoundland. The consequence is, that Irish and Scotch
cured fish appears to be more salted, and is not so drj^.
Hundreds'of instances have occm-red, of Pilchards not being taken on the coast of this
district,.—not for want of means to extract the oil and cure them, but for want of means to
pursue the fishery for these fish, as on the coast of Cornwall {Mr. H. E. Roderick.)
If there be any regulations under statutes, none are now enforced; but they were during Regulations,
the existence of the several local Inspectors of Fisheries some years since. I am of opi¬
nion that regulations ought to exist, salutary ones, but the query does not require me
to state them. There are no regulations observed as to the size of the meshes of nets.
Each fisherman makes or gets them made as he pleases, but they are generally the same
size as others used for each particular kind of fish. I am not of opinion that the size of
the meshes on this coast is prejudicial to the fisheries. Trawl-nets are used in some hookers
by the hookermen. Trammel-nets are used almost exclusively by those fishermen along
the coast of this district who have some land. The season for trawling is at all times that
the weather permits; but generally, spring, summer, and autumn. Trammel-nets are used
(if fish be in-shore) from May to December.
Nets ought not to be allowed to be moored during the day time.
Penalties ought to be inflicted on owners of sean boats, on proof that young Cod, Whit
