pletion of the work. Your Committee feel a perfect confidence that the map, about to be furnished, will comprehend the local subdivisions, without which it would not answer the peculiar purposes of valuation. Were the boundaries of townlands to be omitted, the counties would be obliged to supply the deficiency by independent efforts; and the experience of the past, with the state of too many of the existing local surveys, sufficiently prove, that it would be in vain to expect, through the medium of the grand juries, such separate maps as could be compared and combined for any useful national purpose; the expense of such double operation would also be considerably increased, and an inferior work would be produced at a sacrifice of time, convenience, and economy.

Your Committee fully agree in the opinion of Major Colby, that steps should be taken without delay to facilitate the tracing of the townland boundaries, a measure which that of ficer conceives would reduce, by one half, the time required for this particular branch of the survey. With this view your Committee have already instructed their chairman to bring in a bill, which they trust may pass into a law during the present session, requiring the several grand juries to carry into effect the provisions of the 49th Geo. III., so far as respects the tables of townlands and their acreable contents. They also conceive that every other aid and facility should be afforded to the officers of the Ordnance, both by placing at their disposal an enlarged supply of improved instruments, and by giving them a free access to all the existing public maps and records which bear upon the subject. The Down survey, that of the forfeited lands, the county and baronial maps, however imperfect in themselves, may

be of some service. When the objects with which the intended survey is undertaken are understood, your Committee are convinced that not only will all the local authorities in Ireland afford their zealous co-operation, but that many private individuals will, on public grounds, allow access to such maps and other documents as can be of service in tracing the boundaries.

In the survey of Roscommon, the bishops and clergy afforded every facility in settling parochial boundaries; your Committee trust, that such aid will, in the present instance, be renewed, and assisted by the magistrates and the police throughout Ireland. They are happy to learn, from the evidence, that so far from there being any reason to apprehend obstructions on the part of the peasantry, a reliance may be placed on their good will and co-operation. It is, however, important that the nature and object of the proposed work should be thereby explained and understood; when that explanation is given, there can be no doubt but that the proprietors and occupiers of land in Ireland, will feel that the completion of the survey and valuation is likely to conduce to the general good, and add to the value of property.

Whilst your Committee express their belief that the execution of the survey cannot be placed in better hands than in those of the Ordnance officers, they cannot but add, that it is expedient to give much greater dispatch to this work, than what has occurred in the trigonometrical survey of England. That great work, highly creditable as it is to the individuals by whom it is conducted, has already been thirty-three years in progress, and yet it still wants onethird part of its completion. It ought to be added, however, that the operations of the Ordnance suffered ‘in

terruption during the war. The Irish survey is of the most urgent necessity, and no effort should be omitted to accelerate completion. It may be observed, that the Ordnance survey of Ireland must, in the course of a few years, have been undertaken by that department, and that by hastening the period of its execution for the important purposes of the Irish valuation, there will be, ultimately, no greater expense borne by the public. A limited number of persons employed, appears a questionable policy on the principles of economy, as the directing staff must be maintained no less for the control of a limited, than for the guidance of a more extended operation. It is satisfactory to your Committee to report, that the former surveys, carried on under Parliamentary authority, have established in Ireland a school of scientific topography. Whether it may be expedient that any of the respectable civil engineers of Ireland should be employed, under the authority of the Ordnance, it is altogether for that Board, in its discretion, to determine; but your Committee perfectly agree with Major Colby, that a central and effectual control is indispensable to the successful termination of this undertaking. The best scale for effecting the intended survey appears to your Committee that of six inches to the English mile; this will afford sufficient means to the engineers to enter into all the detailed information requisite; it is the scale on which the Ordnance survey of Kent was originally commenced. With respect to the engraving, it may be advisable to follow the same scale adopted in the British maps. A protraction upon a double scale of twelve inches to the mile for cities and great towns, where the valuation must necessarily be more minute, has been recommended, and appears desirable. The altitudes of the principal moun

VOL. XVII. PART II.

tains should also be given, as well as the boundary of the unenclosed lands, whether bog, mountain, or rock. The latter will correspond to the distinction traced on the Ordnance map, between cultivated lands, commons, and woods.

Your Committee have learned that the hydrographic charts, now extant, of the coasts and harbours of Ireland, are inaccurate and unsatisfactory. Combined operations_between the Admiralty and the Ordnance, for the purpose of furnishing information so important to the public interests, have already been suggested, and your Committee trust that the views of the Admiralty, contained in the secretary's letter of the 22d day of April, may be carried into effect. The soundings of the harbour of Plymouth have been laid in with advantage, both with regard to economy and to dispatch, by making use of the points ascertained trigonometrically by the officers of the Ord

nance.

Your Committee are of opinion, that the new survey should supersede all local topographical proceedings, whether under the authority of grand juries, or otherwise. It is evident that the Ordnance survey will supply all that can be required for county purposes. And however creditable to the artists who have executed them, are the maps of Roscommon, Longford, Mayo, Kilkenny, and Dublin, yet most of the other county maps being laid down upon a variety of scales with very imperfect instruments, and without pretension to scientific accuracy, it would be unwise to continue operations so liable to objection, as well as so expensive in their execution.

With a view to the diminution of expense, your Committee are inclined to think that the Bavarian system is not an ineligible one, by which in

F

dividual proprietors of estates are allowed to subscribe for copies of those parts of the map in which they feel interested. A survey, on the scale of six inches to the mile, might be applied to various purposes of private utility, more especially when combined with a valuation, and with the statistical information included in the population returns. The latter documents contain the number of families, houses, the size and description of farms; and, when accompanied by an accurate map and valuation, your Committee are inclined to hope they may furnish individual proprietors, at a moderate price, whether inhabitants or absentees, with valuable information respecting the condition of their estates, and the best means of improving them.

2. With respect to the valuation, your Committee are not as yet in possession of sufficient evidence to enable them to form a detailed plan, or to do more than to suggest some leading general principles; they, however, regret this the less, because the survey must necessarily take precedence, the basis of the valuation being obviously the proposed maps of counties, baronies, and parishes, divided into their respective townland. Tracings of these skeleton maps may be furnished, as the filling up of the triangulation proceeds. In effecting the valuation, your Committee conceive that these principles must be adhered to and combined.-Section 1. A fixed and uniform principle of valuation applicable throughout the whole work, and enabling the valuation not only of townland, but that of counties, to be compared by one common measure. Section 2. A central authority, under the appointment of government, for direction and superintendance, and for the generalization of the returns made in detail. Section 3. Local assistance, regularly organized,

furnishing information on the spot, and forming a check for the protection of private rights. In a future session it will be the subject of consideration, how far these principles are accurate, and in what manner it will be the pleasure of Parliament to carry them into effect.

Your Committee are fully aware of the difficulty of the proposed valuation, and how much consideration it will require in all its details. During the recess, they trust that the attention of the Irish government, of the magistracy, of grand juries, and of the proprietors of land, may be given to the question, and that early in the next session a bill may be introduced, likely to meet the assent of the legislature.

In concluding this report, your Committee must again repeat their recommendation, that the work may be proceeded upon with as much dispatch as is consistent with the accuracy of execution. It is not unworthy of remark, that all former surveys of Ireland originated in forfeitures, and violent transfers of property; the present has for its object the relief which can be afforded to the proprietors and occupiers of land from unequal taxation. The general tranquillity of Europe, enables the state to devote the abilities and exertions of a most valuable corps of officers to an undertaking, which, though not unimportant in a military point of view, recommends itself more directly as a civil measure. Your Committee trust that the survey will be carried on with energy, as well as with skill, and that it will, when completed, be creditable to the nation, and to the scientific acquirements of the present age. In that portion of the empire to which it more particularly applies, it cannot but be received as a proof of the disposition of the legislature to adopt all measures

Ireland.

Paper deliverED IN TO THE COMMITTEE OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, BY SIR HUMPHRY Davy, ON THE SALMON-FISHERIES.

1. There are two species of the genus salmo, caught in the salmon fisheries of Great Britain and Ireland.

The first, Salmo Salar, is by far the most important, as an article of food and commerce. It is distinguished from the second, Salmo Eriox, by its greater size when of the same age, by possessing a smaller and more pointed head, a more slender tail, greater diameter in proportion to its length, fewer and smaller spots, and other characteristic marks, well known to the water clist, but which it would be useless in this place to describe.

The salmo salar is the common salmon; the salmo eriox is known by different names in different districts, such as salmon peal, sowen, and bulltrout, but its most correct appellation is sea-trout.

These two species, when of the same size, are sometimes confounded by ignorant persons; but without minute examination, they are easily distinguished by an experienced eye. There is a very remarkable difference in their habits; the stomach of the sea-trout is generally found full at the time of its migration from the sea, whilst that of the salmon is as generally empty.

2. Fishes in general multiply their species by eggs, which are impregnated out of the body; and which require the contact of water saturated with air to render them productive. Fishes that spawn either in the sea or lakes, almost always come to the shallows and deposit their eggs upon

keep the water saturated with air, and their season of breeding is in general that of most animals, in the spring; but the salmo genus (I speak of those individuals belonging to it, the habits of which are well known, and which are the subjects of this evidence) multiply their species in winter; and they require running water for this purpose, water saturated with air. It has been proved by the experiments of M. Jacobi, that the egg of a salmon or trout impregnated, will not produce a fish in still unchanged water; and that for this purpose, it must be constantly washed by fresh portions of water, in a rapid stream or under a fall.

3. These circumstances shew the

necessity for that wonderful instinct of the salmon, which, preparatory to the breeding season, quit the sea and make their way through rapids, over falls, and through great lakes to the upper parts of rivers, where their eggs may be deposited in a pure aerated water.

The salmon requiring much food, and depositing a large quantity of spawn, generally occupies large rivers, having a number of tributary streams. The sea-trout, on the contrary, though found in large rivers, is more common in small ones, and scarcely ever penetrates so far into the interior as salmon. Sometimes, indeed, in very small streams, it deposits its spawn almost close to the sea, in gravel, where the stream meets the waves at high water-mark.

The different habits of the salmon and sea-trout are well demonstrated in the Moy, near Ballina, in Ireland. There is a large pile in this river close to the town, and below the fall a considerable stream joins the Moy. The salmon leap this fall; the sea-trout almost all spawn in the smaller stream, few miles from the sea.

4. Salmon begin to run up rivers generally in March, and continue migrating from the sea till October or November; but in the early spring, there are few in motion. In June and July they migrate in great number, and so in August and September, but this depends upon the seasons, and particularly the quantity of water in the river; the large fish seldom leave except in floods, unless late in the year, and the one-year-old fish are almost always most abundant in large rivers in July. The sea-trout, in respect to their breeding season, agree with salmon ; but the period of their migration is usually later, particularly in small rivers.

The fish that come soonest into the water breed first: salmon have been known to spawn in the end of October, and I have seen them full of ova, even in March. It is stated, that the eggs produce young ones in about six weeks; and the young fish, when they have reached the size of smelts, take the opportunity of the first flood to go to the sea or brackish water.Their great migration downward, is in March, April, and the beginning of May.

There is much reason for believing that the young salmon do not immediately go far from the river into the sea; for in August and September a fish exactly resembling them in form, and from ten to fourteen inches long, (called whitlings and whitings,) without visible ova or spermatic secretion, are found in salmon rivers, a mile or two from the sea, and which return to the sea, without attempting a farther migration. This seems to be a sort of glimmering of that instinct which, the next year, when they are fit for propagation, carries them, with an irresistible impulse, into fresh water, and to the most remote sources of it. The salmon of fifteen or eighteen months old is called, in Scotland,

Grilse. Grilses differ in size, probably from their different ages; those spawned first, under common circumstances, being of larger size.

The female fish, in spawning, deposits her eggs slowly on gravel; the male sheds a white seminal liquid upon them, and both fish cover the eggs with gravel. The male is most active in this operation, which hardens the extremity of the mouth, and bends it into the form of a hook.

As soon as the fish have spawned, they begin to move towards the sea, and take advantage, after they have somewhat recovered their weakness, to escape by the first floods, in February or March. The grilse that has spawned, after returning from the sea, is called a salmon. growth of salmon, in the sea, is not accurately known, but they seem to double their weight in a season.

The

5. There is a general complaint of the diminution of the salmon in fisheries. In the Thames, it can scarcely be said to exist; and even in the Avon, the Severn, and the Trent, it is becoming comparatively a scarce fish. The great northern fisheries, and the Irish fisheries, are much less productive than formerly.

The simple remedies for this national evil are:

1. To suffer more fish to spawn, and fish of all ages and sizes.

2. To prevent any fish from being killed in rivers after spawning.

3. To prevent the young salmon, or salmon-fry, from being killed.

As salmon, and salmon-trout, belong, in fact, to the river in which they were spawned, and as each variety of salmon, or salmon-trout, affects a particular river, and always returns to it; and as the old law of the country was framed upon this principle, salmon-fisheries never having been considered as belonging to the coast, all stake-fishings should be