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be considered to owe her abundant produce to these conspicuous advantages.

Enough has now been said, and our readers will perhaps accept our assurance that every attempt to show that salmon need not enter rivers has failed signally. We will now proceed with what we believe to be the true theory of these fishes' immigration, and its effect in exposing them to capture.

When bent on entering their river, salmon do not steer straight from out at sea, but feel their way along the coast, hugging the shore-aided, doubtless, in discerning their path, by the many fresh-water rills which pour in, since they are clearly able to discriminate between salt and fresh water. On their advent, and before they reach the mouth of their haven, they are intercepted by the new machinery, the bag-nets in the sea, or, should they escape past these snares, are stopped by stake-nets in the estuary. The following brief description of these formidable apparatus will enable a comparison to be drawn between their fishing efficiency and that of their old competitor-the draught-net, or net and coble.

The bag-net, which certainly is a beautiful instrument, and admirably adapted to its purpose, extends from the shore into the sea, being floated perpendicularly as a wall of net, by means of corks and buoys, and by being stretched out by ropes and anchors at the water end, which is adapted to hold fish by its funnel-like chamber, or bag; whence its name. This bag is lifted periodically to take out the fish; for the tide does not leave the net dry-so that this trap operates day and night, Sundays and all; in fact, where no fence time is observed, incessantly.

Within the river's mouth, set like the fringe of long teeth in a whale's jaws, stand the still more tremendous stake-nets-some three-quarters of a mile long; and others shorter, but more deadly, being placed in sharp turns, or in narrow gorges of the river. These nets are fixed perpendicularly on ranges

lower-water mark of the channel. Some have but one head, with two chambers on either side, being the flood and ebbtraps. Others have three heads, like Cerberus, guarding, as it were, the gate of the river in a manner fearful to fish. The salmon, swimming along shore in search of their rivers, are arrested by the upright net or leader. In the desire to pass this object, they swim along the net outwards until they enter one of the chambers, and, becoming involved in its maze, seldom or never find their way out again. These traps are left dry at the receding of the tide, when, by means of a little door in the last chamber of each head, the nets are visited, and the fish taken out. In the Solway there are nets of this sort more than 1,000 yards long, and with as many heads as a hydra. Persons who

have watched these nets during clear water declare they have frequently observed a shoal of salmon so alarmed by them as to rush off to sea again, where they remain for weeks, and then are continually preyed upon by seals, sharks, and other rapacious fish, which seem to take even a heavier toll on passing salmon than man does.

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Timidity, a passion common to all wild animals, must be keenly felt by the nimble being in question, which will dart away at the sight of a scarcely per ceptible fishing-line. So apt to be af fected by fear, our finny visitor is certainly liable to this sensation when, during its landward course, it meets with such terrible traps as bag and stakenets. These novel engines are believed to cause multitudes of salmon to be lost to man; and this effect is thus accounted for. The fish, when returning to their river, come in suecessive shoals, coasting along shore, to keep out of reach of seals and porpoises. Each shoal is understood to be headed, like a flock of wild fowl, by a leader, who is also said to warn his train, when danger appears, to swim back to sea, by a jump out of water; a not improbable evolution, since he is doubtless not less shy than the leading

glen. When the course of the shoal is intercepted by a bag-net, it is only some of the fish that find their way into the chamber, and the residue start away. The immediate effect of the captured salmon, detained in this cage, is to attract whatever predatory fishes may be roaming about to the spot, where their presence scares away all the free salmon, probably driving many off to sea. Besides this, the net, stretched like a wall from the beach out into deep water, acts as a barrier, and so enables a seal to catch its lively booty. At the time fixed nets were first introduced, their inventors argued, as we have premised, that they would take, for man's use, many salmon that would otherwise be destroyed by seals, &c. which infest the mouths of most large Scottish and Irish rivers. But, on the contrary, it may be believed that these machines produce the opposite result. One stake-net fisher stated to an early committee, that he "had seen three "or four seals, ranged in a line, before 66 a stake-net; and, when they discovered "a salmon, they were immediately in "pursuit." He added: "They break "the nets, kill a number, and let away "all the rest." A brother fisher had observed a seal to frequent a stake-net, and help himself out of it regularly. In fact, the chamber of one of these nets, with a salmon in it, is-besides being a larder a cage with a decoy, attractive to fish of prey; which consequently hang about it, kill some salmon, and frighten many others off. The scattered shoal, however, collects again, and continues its course with the tide, until it meets another of these machines, when a similar scene of capture and dispersion occurs. As the fish, it is believed, quit the sea for the river at rising tide, and as they swim close in shore, they do not escape these fixed apparatus by keeping the channel, but are taken by them in those enormous quantities which deprive the upper people of a fair slice of the bounty of nature. Such as are not devoured by their finny foes wander up and down the estuary, moving backwards and forwards in the tideway, with the tide, waiting until a fresh-water flood shall

put the river in what is technically called "a runable condition." During this fluctuation, the stake-net acts by the flow and ebb of the tide, which brings the fish into its chambers; and, when set in killing situations, this engine is capable of almost exterminating the salmon species in a river.

Not only has over-fishing diminished this breed of fish, but the general drainage of inland districts has had the same effect. Formerly, the vast tracts of sheep pasture and other wild land in mountainous parts, where most large Scottish rivers have their rise, used, before they were drained, to hold-like a sponge in their sod and moss-the rain which fell in those regions of mist, and which, long retained and slowly given forth, trickled down to the main rivers, and thus, by giving a constant supply of water to them, prevented those alternate droughts and floods which now are prevalent, and are fatal to the fish. Then, a river, slow in rising and slow in subsiding, maintained that equable height which enabled salmon to ascend continually. But, now that each stream swells suddenly and sinks rapidly-like, as the poet sings, love the fish takes to his fins and tail, as Cupid does to his wings, and disappears. This is not all the mischief; since whatever spawn is eventually deposited in the bed of a "riotous river" is liable to be destroyed by the severity of the floods, which tear up the gravel and deposit it over lower spawning-beds, or scatter it abroad, covering the adjacent meadows with sand and ova. The loss by these literally "moving accidents by flood and field" is sometimes, during very wet winters, immense and incalculable, and renders it more requisite than ever to frame a law that shall so restrict fishing as to leave an adequate number of salmon to sustain the stock.

Injurious as heavy winter rain is to the deposited roe, a succession of autumn showers is necessary for its deposition. When rains cause the water in a river to rise, the shallows become deeper, and thereby adapted to salmon for passing over them; and, at the same time, artificial obstructions in the shape of mill and

canal dams, and natural obstacles in the form of falls, are diminished in height, so that the flooded state of a river is the one suited for salmon to ascend, and the instincts of the fish are regulated accordingly. It is believed that fullgrown salmon, heavily charged with spawn, would ascend directly they reach the mouth of their river, did its state of water permit them; and then they would become the earliest spawners in the uppermost beds, and be followed by the grilse, which seldom appear till May. Of this there is no doubt, that in the earlier months heavy fish are keen at entering from the sea, but, owing to want of water, and to netting, they are usually almost exterminated below.

The species is fast decreasing, ever since the genius and industry of man have been on the stretch to find out new modes for its destruction 1; but many of our rivers may be again alive with shoals of this king of the fresh water by sparing an adequate number of parent fish. The question for our legislators to solve, therefore, is, what amount of restriction is necessary to secure that quantity of salmon being yearly spared which will be sufficient to sow the national extent of spawninggrounds. At present wanton destruction in these districts is often winked at by the magistracy and other indwellers, in revenge of that rapacity of the lower fishermen which deprives the angler, and all but themselves, of a share in the riches of the stream.

The power of a river as a salmon producer depends, firstly, as we have said, on its natural qualities; and, secondly, on its freedom from artificial obstructions. On this latter point, the Commissioners, who last year made the tour of the salmonrivers of England and Wales, observe, in their report, that of all the evils which affect this class of fisheries, obstacles to the fishes' ascent must be regarded as the most pernicious, since it is obvious that to exclude a fish which breeds in streams from entering them is a sure way of extirpating the breed. The majority of these obstructions, if not abso

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canal weirs, offer great facility to the unfair and illegal means employed for destroying this fish. In very few instances has the salmon "pass-over," or ladder, been applied as a remedy, although it is a perfect one, and would soon repay its cost. If we take a lofty, bird's-eye view of the land, we see that our rivers are so many natural waterroads, up which this fish will come to our very hand if we will but reopen these once free highways to him. The expense of setting up a “migration-pass,' which converts a tall perpendicular cascade into an easily-ascended stone stair, -fed with a light stream, up which the fish can wriggle,-is estimated at about 607. ; a sum that ought not to deter any community interested in the improvement of the fishery of a fine river. adopting an improved model, such as may be seen in the rooms of the Fishery Preservation Association, there would be no waste of water, and therefore no loss of mill power, while the gain to the piscatory interest would be immense. What is wanted, therefore, is, that the fishermen of all ranks and classes connected with each river should join in defraying the cost of this clever contrivance. They may learn from their favourite fish. The exertions she makes to overcome obstacles to her upward course are truly surprising. Excelsior is her motto. No waterfall she can possibly surmount stops her; she will breast a torrent too rapid for the strength of man to resist, and teach him, by her active leaps up a cataract, and, after many falls back, her successful jump, a lesson of perseverance in undespairing, repeated attempts to rise.

In propounding the restrictions as to modes of fishing which the Commissioners deem necessary to restore the English and Welsh inland fisheries from their present depressed state, and to develop their power of production, foremost consideration is duly given to regulation of the close season. It is certainly of the first importance that the fisheries should close early; because the earliest fish to run up are the surest breeders,

shallowest streams, where the spawningbeds, or "fords," are less liable to be destroyed by winter floods than those in the lower portion of the river. The date of closure should be determined by the season when the majority of the fish have diminished in value because of the growth of either the roe or the milt, which every salmon contains; for the quality of the commodity decreases in an inverse ratio to the increase of the roe and milt, as the spawning time approaches. As is well known to all gourmets, salmon are in the finest condition in the beginning of spring, being valued in proportion to the smallness of the spawn, and being in less prime order every month after, since they become lean as the eggs enlarge. After June, they gradually become less fit for food, until the time when they are absolutely unfit. Yet it is after this month that the greatest quantity are taken by stake-nets. The statute just enacted prescribes a close season from 1st September to 1st February; yet we hope that a future Act will close all netting, for a few years, in the middle of August. The new law has made a just and much-wanted provision for a weekly close-time, with the double object of satisfying the angling interest and of enabling some fish to spawn early. If this tribe of animals was unmolested, their notorious irregularity as to ascent for the purpose of spawning would have the excellent effect of sowing the highest ground, at the very river-head, while the later fish would content themselves with ploughing the lower fields; and thus the entire extent of seed-bed, the vast area of the future aquatic harvest, would be sown. But, since in some rivers, a hundred millers' dams and canal weirs hinder that natural and well-adapted process, and a score or more of stake-nets stop and kill the scaly denizens of the stream, the number of fish left to breed is but a decimal fraction of that algebraic, ichthyologic x, the unknown quantity of salmon which ought to be spared to sustain

Among the delusions promulgated on the subject of salmon fishing, is the fanciful idea that this branch of our general fisheries is an exhaustless resource, the supply being supposed susceptible of unlimited augmentation. This notion, frequently proved unfounded in the case of sea fishing, is almost equally so in the present instance. Hitherto, the continual attacks of the genus homo on genus salmo have nearly exterminated the latter species in certain localities; and not a single attempt at preservation that has occurred within our knowledge has succeeded in doing more than augmenting the take in a tenfold degree. Prejudiced persons, confiding in the great prolific power of the animal, say there is no fear of over-fishing if there were adequate protection-since, as each female lays about 1,000 eggs for every pound of her weight, a few pair of salmon would suffice to stock a stream as vast as the Mississippi. But, so far from the fecundity of this fish being sufficient to sustain the breed, the generally received opinion is, that not one in a thousand ova arrives to a state of salmonhood. Much may be done by artificial propagation-as has been shown at Stormontfield, where it has been proved that, by this method, the produce of a river can be at once raised one-tenth. Let us, therefore, press this point, viz. that, if our hypothesis of the fish returning to the place of its birth be correct, the salmoculturist will reap the profit of his labours.

By continuing to intersperse our sketch of the habits of this animal with some comments on the controversial question as to the fittest modes of capturing it, we may better appreciate the arguments in the quarrel of fixed v. moving nets. moving nets. For instance, the advocates of the bag-net say their engine is the best, because it takes this "red venison of the waters" in the sea, where the article is found in prime order, while, on the other hand, a few days' stay in fresh water deteriorates it. These statements are true, yet do not militate

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brackish water, which, according to our notion, does not produce the same deteriorative effect. However, palates differ; and doctors dispute so much on this point, that it remains moot. One of the witnesses before a former committee, a bag-net fisherman to wit, and who seemed to have had his taste sharpened by sea air, possessed this one of the five senses in as sensitive a degree as FineEar" in the Arabian Tale enjoyed the sense of hearing; for this piscatorial epicure declared he could tell a salmon taken a mile up a river as having lost flavour by having so far quitted salt water! Short of satisfying a palate tender and delicate as his was, a slice of a salmon "with the tide in it," will suffice to please ordinary connoisseurs ; so the argument, that it is essential to fish in salt water, does not hold water; and, of late years, an improved method of coble fishing, enabling the draught-net to be used in all parts of a river, has silenced another cry in favour of fixed nets, viz. the inefficiency of their rival, the coble-net, which is found, even in the case of the Tweed, a fresh-water stream, quite adequate to supply the market with prime salmon. Yet we

allow that salmon taken in the sea in the early spring are in the best order, and we therefore are in favour of a fair and legitimate use of the bag-net.

If we seek for a cause beyond mere instinct, as directing the earliest migration of this tribe of fishes from fresh to salt water, we shall probably find it in the circumstance that the river affords hardly any food for them; and we may therefore better understand the beneficent design of Providence in having endowed these creatures with the impulse of quitting the river, which produces them in such abundance that it cannot supply food for a thousandth part of their number, and which they accordingly forsake, descending to the sea, where they grow and fatten, becoming of the richest quality, and then return to their native stream, thus bringing themselves, in an excellent condition as an article of food, within man's grasp.

they feed on, we should imagine it is seaweed, which abounds near the mouths of rivers; and we conceive that salmon do not quit their proper feeding grounds, but remain in separate shoals close to the mouths of their several streams, ready to ascend at the befitting season. Food, the object in their descent to the sea, having been obtained, they ascend to their natal rivulets for the reproduction of the species.

From the day when the draft of the Great Charter, which may be seen in the British Museum, was penned, it has been the constant object of English legislation, when dealing with salmon, to give this fish a ready access to the upper waters;-the whole question has ever been dealt with as if the salmon were solely a river fish, and no regulations have been provided concerning its capture in the sea. Hence, indeed, some of the abuses now besetting the general fishery; for, until the Act of the late session, no law applied to tidal waters outside the mouths of rivers, because the laws were framed in times when this fish was only taken within rivers, there then being no known means of capturing them outside. But since some forty years back, when modern ingenuity invented new means, adapted to the sea-shore, these very efficient methods of capture were uncontrolled by law, and worked their will, unrestricted either as to season, size of mesh, position, or observance of Sunday. In England, and Wales, and even in Scotland, the fixed net has operated throughout the open season without intermission. In Ireland, the Sabbath is by law observed in this particular.

Were our rivers free from artificial obstructions, principally mill and canal weirs, myriads of salmon would ascend every year, urged by their irresistible impulse to seek the fresh-water shallows, where the pebbly fords would form the innumerable seed-beds of an immense finny harvest.

What the aggregate extent of these gravelly fields is, we cannot form even a guess; but are sure that there is a world of waste waters, as well

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