was laid down in the harbour, and consisted of two longitudinal ground chains of 1,000 feet each, attached at intervals of 50 feet to two sets of Mitchell's screws, which were worked into the clay in the bed of the stream. The bridle chains, shackled above to the mooring buoys, were secured below to the ground links between the attachments of the screws, the buoys being so arranged that each vessel was held stem and stern, instead of swinging round with the tide, or stranding with one end on the large central sandbank, as heretofore.
From 1862 to the present date, the story of the haven, with the exceptions of the trawling fleet and the Belfast line, which will be treated of directly, is not one which will awaken envy in the breasts of those whose interests are bound up in rival ports, nor indeed can it be a source of congratulation to those whose interests might ordinarily be supposed to be best promoted by its prosperity. It is true that the foreign trade for seven years after 1862 was in a state of fluctuation rather than actual decline, but the three succeeding years were stationary at the low figure of 21 imports each, after which there was a slight improvement, raising the annual numbers to 24, 32, and, in 1875, 33, due more to the staunch allegiance of Messrs. B. Whitworth and Bros., whose cotton again appeared on the wharf, than to any inducements offered to them or others by increased facilities or more appropriate accommodation. The coasting trade has already been referred to, so that there is no necessity to recapitulate facts but just laid before our readers. It is proper, however, to mention a few statistics respecting the trade in exports of coal, the chief business, and below are given the numbers of tons shipped, mostly to Ireland, in each of the specified years:—
1855 31,490
1860 23,652
1865 16,225
1866 12,315
1867 10,912
1868 6,809
1869 24,741
1870 43,653
1871 51,473
1872 54,794
1873 55,447
1874 56,939
1875 71,353.
The large and sudden increase from 1869 is mainly owing to several screw steamships having been extensively engaged in the traffic, and there is every probability, from the addition within the last few months of a new and handsome coal-screw, and
