214 Natural History and Political Impropriation 



to facilitate the passage of the fish over his weirs by every 

 means consistent with the proper supply of water to his 

 wheels. At present the fisheries at the mouths and lower parts 

 of rivers so completely prevent the access of the fish to the 

 upper parts, that, unless there happen to be high floods, which 

 prevent the fishermen below keeping their nets in, the upper 

 proprietors comparatively seldom see any until the season is 

 out. The evidence before the House of Commons on this 

 point is exceedingly amusing. One person thinks that the 

 upper proprietors have no right to expect any fish, as they 

 have never paid any consideration for any when they bought 

 their estates : another states that he pays 7000/. a year to the 

 Duke of Gordon ; and that, if he is compelled to observe a 

 weekli/ (not a daily) close time, he will lose that proportion 

 of his rent ; another observes the weekly close time, and 

 opens a passage for the fish, but places a crocodile, painted 

 in very glaring colours, in the gap, to frighten them back 

 again ; another sai/s he observes the weekly close time in his 

 cruive fishing, but no one is allowed to inspect the cruives ; 

 another sends men to break down stake nets in the estuary^ 

 which reach from high to low water mark, and at the same 

 time stretches a net completely across the river.^ from March 

 to August, so that not a fish can pass without his permission. 

 No wonder if fish are scarce in the upper parts of rivers, 

 when such samples of disinterestedness are manifested by the 

 proprietors of the fislieries below. No wonder that the 

 upper proprietors should be careless about the protection of 

 fish from which they are not allowed to derive any benefit. 

 No wonder that they should connive at, and even encourage, 

 the shameful destruction of the fish in close time, since that is 

 the only time they are allowed to have any. Let the fisher- 

 men below make it worth the while of the upper proprietors 

 to protect fish, and they will receive that protection; but it is 

 too much to expect from human nature that they will take 

 all the odium and trouble of preserving them, when other 

 parties reap all the benefit. 



There ought to be conservators employed to see that the 

 fisheries are properly regulated; and these men should be 

 paid by an assessment on all the proprietors, in proportion to 

 the value of their fisheries. 



I should also recommend an extension and uniformity of 

 close time in all the rivers in the kingdom ; for, although it is 

 an undoubted fact that some clean fish are caught in rivers 

 early in the season, yet they are comparatively few in number, 

 and the capture of them 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 de- 



