rs in the kingdom, for although it is an undoubted
fact that some clean fish are caught in the river early in the
season, yet they are comparatively few in number, and their
capture involves that of a far greater number of spawning and Kelt
fish, which are not only of no value for the table, but the
destruction of which is in effect the destruction of millions of
fish which would proceed from them. In the first Parl. Rep., p.
11, Mr. Walter Jamieson says, that in the river Tweed, from
January 10th to February 1st, he caught one hundred and twenty-one
fish, only one of which had spawned; from February 1st to March
1st he took forty-four fish, twenty-five of which had not spawned
--fifteen were Kelts and four were clean fish; from March 1st to
March 10th he took seventeen fish, seven of which had not spawned
(four of them on the 10th)--six were Kelts and one clean fish. Now
the close time varies in almost every river, and some have no
close time at all; thus in the Ribble the close time begins on
September 15th and ends on December 31st, and in the Hodder there
is no legal close time; but there is no practical difference
between them in this respect, every one thinking himself entitled
to kill all the fish he can, at all times of the year, in both of
them. The observance of the weekly close time, that is, opening a
passage for the fish from sunset on Saturday night to sunrise on
Monday morning, is a mere farce, even if it could not be evaded,
as it almost invariably is, for it is well known to every one
conversant with the habits of Salmon, that they only ascend the
rivers when there are freshes (floods) in them, and in summer the
ground is generally so dry, and vegetation absorbs so much
moisture, and the evaporation is so great, that it not only
requires twice as much rain to produce a flood in the river then
as it does in winter, but when the rain does come its effects are
only visible in the river for a short time. I have known a strong
fresh in the Ribble in the morning, and the river low again in the
afternoon of the same day. A fresh coming at the beginning of a
week, would disappear long before the close of it, unless the
rainy weather continued; and thus the strict observance of the
weekly close time would be of little service to the upper
proprietors unless the fresh came at the right end of the week.

The Smolts and the Par ought to be protected as strictly as the
Salmon; and there ought to be a penalty attac