342 The Scottish Naturalist. 



improvement of the salmon fishing in Scotland, informs us how 

 the fish were then, as now, massacred in their pregnant state 

 by country people. I have known," he says, "a fellow not worth 

 a groat kill with a spear in one night's time ioo black fish or 

 kipper, for the most part full of rawns unspawned." He adds — 

 " Even a great many gentlemen, inhabitants by the rivers, are 

 guilty of the same crimes, little reflecting on the prodigious 

 treasure thus miserably dilapidated." Notwithstanding these 

 butcheries, he tells us that no mean profit was then derived 

 from the salmon fishing of Scotland. He had known from two 

 to three thousand barrels, worth about six pounds sterling each, 

 exported in a single year. " Nay, I know Sir James Calder of 

 Muirton alone sold to one English merchant a thousand barrels 

 in one year's fishing." He consequently deems himself justified 

 in estimating the possible product of the salmon fishing, if 

 rightly protected and cultivated, at 40,000 barrels, yielding 

 ^240,000 sterling per annum. It is impossible to say how far 

 this estimate may have been above the actual value of the 

 fisheries in Scotland at that time. Neither is it easy to say 

 how far it exceeds their value at the present time, although, no 

 doubt, it does so to a considerable extent. In a parliamentary 

 return issued in 1864, the value of the whole salmon fisheries of 

 Scotland are stated at ,£52,615 ; but as some eighty fisheries are 

 not included, and others understated, it is perhaps little better, 

 as remarked by an able writer on the subject, " than a multi- 

 plicand requiring to be operated upon by some unascertained 

 multiplicator in order to bring out a correct result." Whether 

 the multiplicator should be 2 or 3, or even a higher number, is 

 about as uncertain. After making every reasonable allowance, 

 by way of deduction in the first statement, and addition in the 

 second, and bearing in mind that salmon was selling in Berwick 

 in the end of the last century (and it was not likely to be higher 

 at the beginning) at from two to five shillings the fish stone of 

 nearly 19 lbs. weight, it will be apparent that the difference in 

 the number of salmon caught now and at the commencement of 

 last century must be very great. 



The deficiency of salmon in the Eden may be the result 

 of the general decay of the species, somewhat intensified 

 by the sea -trout, and the present incompatible condition 

 of the river itself; whichever, it is certain that they are 

 not now numerous. I believe, however, that the salmon 

 still spawn more or less every year in the Eden. I have 



