ation of the fish in the breeding season,
for, as they are seldom allowed to see a fish when it is fit for
the table, why should they look after the poachers in close time?
Why should they be put to much expense and trouble, as well as the
risk of the lives of their game-keepers, merely to breed fish for
the proprietors of stake nets and estuary fisheries, who don't
spend a farthing in the preservation of the fish when breeding,
and yet reap all the benefit? I had occasion, some years ago, to
examine the evidence on this subject given before the House of
Commons in 1825, and was exceedingly amused at the schemes
resorted to to evade the law, moderate and inefficient as was the
law at that time. (Since then the law has been altered both in
Scotland and Ireland, but I do not know what are the provisions,
nor what has been the effect of the new law.) It required that
there should be a free passage for the fish (Salmon) through all
the traps, nets, weirs, and devices that were used to catch or
detain them, from sunset on Saturday night to sunrise on Monday
morning. One man said he paid L7,000 a year for his fishery, and
should lose one-seventh of his catch. Another said he allowed a
free passage on Sundays, but would not permit anybody to go and
examine for themselves. A third proved that he allowed the fish a
free passage on Sundays, but his neighbours proved that he placed
in the gap a crocodile, painted red. And a fourth was convicted of
breaking down the stake nets in the estuary of a river--at the
same time he had a net stretched entirely across the river above,
both day and night. And so with many others, every one striving
with all his might to kill the goose that laid the golden eggs.

This is not the way to improve the Salmon fisheries. To do this
effectually the upper proprietors must have a strong interest in
the preservation of the breeding of fish, and in order to give
them this interest they ought to have an ample supply of fish when
they are in the best condition; but to give them this supply the
law ought to be altered. At present I believe the law does not
require a free passage for the fish (at least in English rivers)
except from Saturday night to Monday morning; in many of them I
believe this is not insisted upon; whereas the law ought to
prohibit fishing for or obstructing the passage of the fish every
night from sunset to sunrise, and this regulation ought to be
rigorously enforced. This would give t