Morning journal and courier., 1889-05-11

doze the hours away; while old women, equatting in rags at cabin doors beside pumps or along paths leading seaward from the cliffs, gissip in apparently endless hours in fierce threnodies of tones, as if their hun- ger could alone be thus appeased. In more than 8 score of these nameless, unmapped collections of tumbling huts which we visis ted the same pitiful scenes were presented; and where all the able bodied men are at sea in their boats, while much that is pfctur- esque may be found, the feeling that war, famine or some extirpating pestilence, must have swept away all but the wretched, half mummied portion, becomes so strong upon you as to render long contemplation of it unbearable. In all these coastwise villages, save at the curing stations, where a consider able number of women are employed, one will scarcely zee face or form of Irish lass or maiden; and asked my fisher friend where in heavens name they had all gone.
 "Gone, is ita-Gone' Heught Over the say enthirely.''
 l ica?'
 "An' couldn't they thought Its bred they are in the milk av their mothers breasts to | do that same. A girshas no better nor tin year high whin the fayver's on her. Faith, an she'll work like baste an save like an | old bite, slyer an desaytfuller nor Ould Nick | himself an whin yed be thinkin' she'd | marry some honest bye, an bide wid her l own, like dayeent craythur-Pz-i-i-p!-s away she's gone, like an aigle over the say. ! Arrah, an the jswel in me own cabin wouldn't be in it the dsy-heav'n bless her ! an kape her till me dyin' hourl-if hadn't | stole her wan night from Caragh-side like 8 | thief O the wurrld; an thin bate the three ! brothers sinsless, broke the ould mans skull l for hint O me timper, an sint word to elivin uncles for their own convanyance at a l meetin', barrin' any fast-day O the siven!" l One seldom gees any save cursory reference | l. -Sn G,I1 l to me to know of their extent and the re- markable number of boats and men they employ. From the mouth of the Shannon | to Malin Head, the norshernmost land-point ! of Ireland, all manner of deep-sea fishing, | while abundant, is scarcely followed, from the poverty of the fisherman, who are uaual, | ly also holders of email patches of land, and l the insuficieney of means for prosecuting the vocation. Consequently little else than herring fishing is followed. From loughs
 Swilly and Foyle, to below Belfast, fishing is 1 carried on with very much more regularity l the markets of Glasgow, Belfast and Liver pool furnishing ready sale for the catches. l Whatever the abundance of fish may be in the Irish sea, from Belfast around the east and south coasts of Ireland to Cork, little | else is attempted by fishermen than to sup. ply the local Dublin market. But from Cork l around the southwestern coast to the mouth of the Shannon again, every estuary. every
 bay and every square mile of deep sea, for 1 an hundred miles off the coast, furnish, in | season, unsurpassed harvest ground for seine and line. The whole sea and coast region comprises some extraordinarily productive
 'banks," including a turbot bank at the
 mouth of the Shannon, an extensive bank l about fifteen leagues northwest of the Blas- quet Islands, another extending northwest l from near Yalentia Island, ten or twelve l small banks to the west of Kenmare Bay. l and splendid cod and haddock bank north l west of the majestic Skel1fg Rocks. Togsth- CT these grounds and banks produce cod, hake, haddock, red gsnnet, ling, conger, l whiting, fat-fish and the ever prized mack 1 erel and herring; and are known as the Fish | cries of Kerry. To the American the sur- | prising fact is that fully three thousand boats l and twenty-five to twenty-seven thousand men are employed in this single industry off 1 this little bit of island coast.
 l The Irish feet, including possibly one hun dred Isle of Man boats of from twenty to | sixty tons each, with crews of seven men
 and little engines for shooting" and hauling
 the seines, comprises about twenty.two hun
 dred boats. The greater portion of these are
 the open "Kerry yawlers," twenty eight feet l in the keel, four and one half feet in the
 beam, of the same depth, and carrying g crew of four men. They are ''thin, pull,
 ing boat for nasty weather" The sailors are
 principally four ton, cutter built craft, very
 sharp and fi5ted only with Hug" and "miz | Z5Q ShllH. 4u6T6 are uOW Idplu ly increasing of fifty ton, smack-rigged yes
 sells, cutter built and fitted with main, fore jib and top sails and "jigger." These craft
 are for swift work in reaching early markets
 alongshore. The French fleet is an imposing
 sight in itself. It comprises between eight
 and nine hundred boats, each of from one hundred to one hundred and fifty tons bur then; much larger vessels than those forming our own Gloucester fleet. They each carry
 crews of from twenty to twenty-five men for
 f'curing" on board, as with our fishing yes-
 sells ''on the banks" The single restriction
 under which the French enjoy their tremen-
 dous privilege here is simply that they can
 not sell their fish in Irish ports. They may purchase and cure on board on equal terms 1 with the Irish.
 Mackerel fishing begins on, but never be.
 fore. St. Patriek's day. Any French or Irish fisher violating this unwritten law would be | forever driven from the coast. The greates | number of vessels will be found off the Skelligs. Here they are massed so densely that frequently the water cannot be seen
 from fishing smack's deck. Casting ol
 "shooting" the nets, which requires about
 one hours time, is invariably done just be.
 fore sunset, so that the boats can see eact
 others night berths; that fouling of the
 seines may be avoided; and also in order to
 trim" and make everything snug for the
 night. The lights carried in the yawlers and
 smaller sailors are simply common lantern l
 from the deck. Rude s'hashes," of cotton.
 waste soaked in petroleum and struck with
 matches, are also provided for dark nights
 and foggy weather; and when the fogs close
 in too heavily the crews keep up terrific
 believing with buffalo and tin horns. After
 everything is trim for the night watch o
 the men Is stationed, and all others go tc
 their hunks below. Precisely at midnight l all are awakened and 'shaulipg up" begins
 When done by hand this requires nearly five
 hours labor, and but half that where the
 sfdonkey engine" is used. The "sole-rops' | which hauls in the seine is ''wenched" in by | two men; two men are required to "shake out" the fish as the net 'comes home;" ont
 man is needed to coil the slack s'solerope;' ,
 and two men are in the hold slowing ava.
 the seine. Whatever the catch-one seine
 load of over thirty thousand mackerel wa taken at Garnish last October-the entir
 Irish fleet is away from their berths by 6y'
 o'clock in the morning for the markets
 Village Harbor, Dingle, Ventry Harbor ant
 Kinsade, where the curers have their buyers
 and from whom, until few years since, eve
 ry fish taken sent to Manchester, Eng
 land. About the middle of June the Isle o | Man fleet leaves these waters and proceeds t'
 the Shetland Islands, where fishing for her
 ring is carried on until October; and on Jul.
 first the crews of the home or Kerry boat
 also discontinue quest for maekerel, and be gin t'long-line' fishing in water of forty t. | fifty tathoms for herring, ling and cod. Al interesting fact to Americans regarding thes southwest Irish coast fisheries is that feV l years since some far-scented Yankee fisher
 men of Gloucester and Boston, noticing tn
 scarcity of mackerel in the American mar
 ket, and the enchanting margin usually ex
 isting between pauper labor and exorbitan product prices, quietly came here, and hay since been able to purchase, cure, pack ant , pay the import duty of two dollars per bar rel on mackerel, and together annually la
 by greater profit than has been yearly SC cured by the combined mackerel-fshe o our entire northeastern coast.
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