2 1 6 Natural History and Political Impropriation 



return to the sea. A penalty ought also to be inflicted for 

 selling, buying, using, or having in possession salmon roe, 

 either in a fresh or salted state ; as its excellence as a bait for 

 trout and eels, and the consequent high price at which it 

 sells, are sufficient temptations to the poachers to kill the 

 salmon in the spawning season, even if they could not sell or 

 use any other part. Yet, destructive as this practice is, there 

 is an extensive trade in this article, a fishing-tackle maker in 

 Liverpool having told a friend of mine, that he sold 300 lb. 

 weight in a season ; which, supposing every ^^^ to hatch, 

 would produce, perhaps, five times as many salmon as are 

 caught, in one year, throughout the whole kingdom.* 



In concluding this imperfect sketch, I may remark that I 

 have omitted many things concerning the natural history and 

 habits of the salmon, fearing that I should trespass too much 

 on your space and the patience of your readers ; but I have 

 wished, in addition to the communicating of some facts in the 

 natural history of this fish, which, I believe, are not generally 

 known, to call the attention of the public to the present state 

 of the salmon fisheries in England. Many of the preceding 

 observations are founded on the evidence of persons connected 

 with the fisheries in Scotland, and are, perhaps, no longer 

 applicable to that part of the kingdom, since there has been 

 an alteration in the laws. Whether this is the case or not, 

 1 have no present means of ascertaining. I shall be glad if 

 any one having a knowledge of the subject will say what 

 benefit (if any) has been derived from the alteration. How- 

 ever, it is sufficient for my present purpose to show what is 

 the state of things where there are no laws on the subject, or, 

 which is the same thing, where there is no attention paid to 

 them ; a state of things which, instead of promoting an abun- 

 dant supply of these excellent fish, and rendering the salmon 

 fisheries nationally important, tends, by the habitual disregard 

 of the laws by one party, the selfishness of another, and the 

 neglect of a third, to render these fisheries of little and still 

 decreasing value; whereas, if the lower proprietors would 

 allow a tolerable supply of the salmon to come up the rivers 



* Salmon are said to produce 18,000 or 20,000 eggs each, and I have 

 no doubt a large salmon will produce still more ; as one I examined a year 

 or two ago, of about 10 lb. weight, had a roe which weighed 2 lb. 9 oz. j 

 and the skin in which the eggs were enveloped (they were not in the loose 

 state in which they are found just before exclusion) weighed 3oz. after all 

 the eggs were washed from it ; so that there were 38 oz. of eggs. I weighed 

 50 of them, and found that they weighed 65 grains. At that rate, 38 oz. 

 would give 12,788, and 300 lb. 1,615,000; but, as they would be much 

 lighter when dried and potted, than when taken from the belly of the fish, 

 we may safely estimate that the 300 lb. would contain 2,000,000 ; a pro- 

 digious number to pass through the hands of one tackle-maker in a season. 



