drawn his spoils from a river in fence, he can safely expose them, under the pretext that they are the produce of a river open at the time. This is a trick so well known and generally practised, and one so sure to prevail while the rivers are protected so variously as at present, that, under the new arrangement, the fence months ought to be similar for all the rivers in the kingdom; and we have already seen that the habits of the fish justify the uniformity which we here recommend.

According to the present laws, the fishing of salmon may begin, in some rivers, as early as December, and in others not until May. Which of these two seasons would it be best to adopt in any new legislative enactment? December and January are spawning months. To allow fishing to be practised throughout this period with any moveable net would be sanctioning the disturbance of the spawning fish in their labour, and capturing them while in a comparatively useless condition as food; especially as we must bear in mind, that the places most suitable for the employment of the net are precisely those which the fish select for their spawning beds. In proof of this, we find one witness, from the Tay, declaring, that in the year 1819, he took eighteen at one haul, in the month of December, of fish spawning on the spawning bed.' As to January, February, and even March, though few fish may be disturbed in the act of spawning, those which have spawned must, during this period, be exposed to destruction. It is, indeed, pretended, that when these spawned fish are inclosed in the net, the scrupulous fishermen take them out safely and return them to the water, retaining such only as are in a sound state. The evidence in the Report, however, exhibits a picture less favourable to the interests of the fisheries, and far more consistent with the present state of human nature. But there are other evils connected with this early use of moveable nets.

In the early months, and until March, when the fry are evolved, the nets are continually extended and withdrawn on the spawning beds. Perhaps this evil, especially during January and February, may, to a certain extent, have been exaggerated. Yet, when we consider the great weight of the ground-rope of the net necessary to bring it close to the bed of the river, and prevent the escape of the prey, hauled many times a day for months in succession over the spawning beds, and frequently dragging along the blocks of stones hurled into the river during floods by the tributary streams, or conveyed by the floating ice which has grounded on the fords, we instantly perceive the force of an observation made by one of the witnesses, You might just as soon have a bed of onions to come to perfection, if a coble-net and rope was dragged over it, tearing up the mould twenty times a day; I would take

my

my chance of the one as soon as the other.' But this evil does not reach its maximum until the eggs are hatched, when the tender fry remain for some time with their bodies exposed, and attached, as it were, by the breast, by means of the umbilical cord, to the egg yet resting in the gravel. In this state, the dragging of a heavy rope even once across their cradle, must occasion the destruction of thousands. Besides, while the fry, after having taken their departure from the spawning fords, are still in the river or their way to the sea, the moveable nets drag them ashore in count→ less numbers, to rot on the banks, or to be employed as food for swine. It is necessary here to state, that these remarks do not apply to moveable nets in estuaries, or on the sea-shore, where there are no spawning beds, and where such engines cannot reach the stations of the samlets or spawned fish, and, we may add, where nets of any kind, during the months referred to, are usually unproductive. Neither do they apply to those fixed engines in rivers, consisting of wooden lattice-work, with labyrinths or courts, which may be so constructed as to detain for capture the ascending sound fish only, and permit the escape of the descending spawned fish and fry. But of these fixed engines we shall have occasion afterwards to speak.

It thus appears, that if due care be taken to protect the fish during the period of spawning, and until they effect their retreat to the sea, and likewise the samlets until they, too, reach a place of safety, the salmon fisheries of Britain should not be suffered to commence, by the aid of moveable nets, previous to the beginning of May. Against this decision it will probably be urged, that many sound fish would, by such a regulation, effect their escape, which, under the present system, are rendered available to the public, and that many spring fisheries, the only kind of value on certain properties, would be annihilated. We admit that, previous to the month of May, there are many fish in excellent condition, which have entered our rivers; that these fish when taken can be conveyed to market in the finest state, decomposition proceeding slowly during the cold season, and ice being abundant; and that the fish thus consigned to the salesman bring a good price, perhaps five times greater than fish sold in the month of July. But after having made this very ample acknowledgment, we would ask of those who offer the objection, to state to us where the fish would go to, which enter rivers from December to May, if they were not interrupted in their course, and captured by the nets in active employment during that period, towards their termination at the head of estuaries or in the sea? Would they not ascend the various tributary streams sufficiently large for their entrance, and people by their presence those waters in the interior

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of

of our country which at present are tenantless wastes? Would they not remain until they had spawned, and thus enable the inland proprietor, at the commencement of the general fishing season, to obtain a luxury for his table from his own stream, instead of deriving it, as at present, from a more seaward proprietor, who enjoys an oppressive monopoly? The evidence is complete that salmon, which have once entered the fresh water, never return to the sea again until the business of spawning has been accomplished. It is true that some of the witnesses have described migrations of the salmon into rivers for the purpose of freeing themselves from vermin which attack them in the sea; and asserted that they are compelled, even before spawning, occasionally to return to the sea, to get rid of other vermin which have seized upon them in the fresh water. But the natural history of these parasitical crustaceous animals lends no countenance to this notion; and the well-known circumstance of spawned fish exclusively being taken in those fixed engines calculated to catch all the individuals migrating to the sea, stamps the conjecture as visionary. It may be said, that the fish would become deteriorated by sojourn ing so long in fresh water, and that it would be of advantage to the public to catch the fish when in the best state, or when it has recently left the sea. We admit that a residence of several weeks, during the hot season, in a shallow, stagnant pool, may alter the colour of the fish, and even make it sickly and lean. But we are here viewing the fish as residing in the river during the cold months, while the streams are yet well supplied with water, and in the total absence of every known cause of deterioration. Taking those circumstances in connexion, we venture to predict that those proprietors who possess fishing stations at the mouths of rivers, will keenly urge the expediency of ordaining the fishing season to commence as early as December, or long previous to May, that they may have it in their power to secure all the fish which may enter the river. On the other hand, we are to expect that the inland proprietors will strenuously oppose the early commencement of the fishing season, as hostile to their interests, by depriving them of the only possible chance of obtaining any share of the bounty which the sea pours forth and directs towards them. We would willingly allow the proprietors of fisheries towards the mouths of rivers their full share; nay, whatever may be the fence months, they must enjoy the peculiar advantages of their situation. But they, indirectly, demand a monopoly, and the inland proprietors hitherto seem not to be aware of the bearings of their interests.

The most suitable period for closing the fishing season is pointed out by the condition of the fish. In the month of August nearly

all

all the fish have become lean, and of little value as food; the roe, towards this period, having acquired considerable size. There are few, indeed, who would wish the fisheries to have permission to continue in activity beyond the middle or end of August, except, perhaps, some inland proprietors, who probably never see a fish in their streams, until their more seaward neighbours have relinquished the fishing operations of the season. But were the arrangements, for the late commencement of the fishing season in spring, to take place as we have recommended, these inland proprietors would obtain good salmon at a suitable season, instead of being contented, as at present, to feast on those which others have not considered worth the catching. But there is another important consideration which ought to be kept in view. The longer the protection is delayed to the spawning fish in autumn, the shorter will be their journey into the river, fewer fords will be occupied, and the fertility of the river greatly circumscribed-a result which will be avoided by those who are anxious to render our fisheries permanently productive.

If the seine, or coble-net, shall be declared the only legal engine of a moveable nature in rivers, and ingenuity does not seem to have devised any thing more suitable, then the boats required, which are of a peculiar construction, should be numbered and registered, and their use, for any other purpose during the fence month, declared illegal. The nets, likewise, should be lodged along with the boats, in suitable houses. This arrangement we consider of great moment, as calculated to check the poacher, by increasing to a great degree the facilities of detection: in fact, it would go near to render his trade unpracticable.

Before closing our remarks on the salmon fisheries in rivers, it is necessary to advert to three engines of a most destructive character to the prosperity of the fisheries in their present unrestrained operation, viz. eel-traps, kidels, and mill-dams.

The salmon, the migrations of which we have already traced, leave the sea for the purpose of spawning in rivers. The reverse of this arrangement prevails with eels. Towards autumn these fish begin to leave the lakes, and descend the rivers to the sea, where they spawn. The young make their appearance on the shore during March, April, and May, searching out the rivers and streams, for the purpose of commencing their ascent to the lakes and pools in which they are destined to arrive at maturity. The period of the descent of the parent fish extends from the beginning of September to the end of November. The fishery is effected by baskets, nets, or other traps, fixed in the ordinary current of the stream, or into which the stream is directed by artificial means, and in these the eels are detained, and along with them all the

other

other kinds of fish which are migrating towards the sea at the same time. Were these engines authorized to be used from the 1st of September to the 1st of December, the period during which the eels execute their migrations, and restrained as illegal throughout the remaining months of the year, all the advantages resulting from their use, as eel-traps, would be satisfactorily obtained. This arrangement, however, we are well aware, would but ill suit the views of their present possessors, who now employ them, under the pretext of eel-fishing, at those periods when there are no eels to catch, but when they are most successful as salmontraps, in the capture of the descending spawned fish and the numerous fry. Every demand, therefore, on the part of the proprietors of eel-traps to be authorized by law to use them previous to September, or later than November, is the trick of a poacher, attempting to mislead.

The great labour constantly required in the management of moveable nets in rivers, and the number of fish which occasionally make their escape to the higher stations, led, at an early period, to the erection of a fixed apparatus of wooden lattices, or wickerwork, for the purpose of intercepting the migrating fish, and directing them into suitable labyrinths for capture. These engines, anciently termed kidels in England, and more recently fishwears, or locks, and cruives in Scotland, differ in their form, extent, and composition, according to the resources or ingenuity of their proprietors. In many cases they extend across the stream, from bank to bank, and, consequently, intercept all the fish on their way to higher stations, and thus secure the monopoly of the stream. Where the whole river and its streams belong to one proprietor, such an engine would, unquestionably, be the most efficient and the least expensive, and might be so constructed and regulated as to be perfectly harmless. But where different proprietors have an interest in the river and tributary streams, the use of such an apparatus is equivalent to the monopoly of their fisheries. Even if this engine extended but a short way into the water from each bank, so as to leave a free space in the middle of the stream, of such an extent that it should, according to the ordinance of Alexander III. of Scotland, in all parts be swa free, that ane swine, of the age of three zears, well fed, may turne himself within the streame, round about, swa that his snowt nor taill sall not touch the bank of the water,' or, according to the interpretation of competent authority, be free from any hedge, or heck, palisadoes, or rails, placed for interrupting the salmon,' still this space can be so easily filled up by a temporary apparatus, as to enable the engine to intercept all the running fish; and there is abundance of evidence in the Reports to lead to the conviction,

that