1828.] Salmon Fisheries of Great Britain. 229 



But what is the actual state of the laws ? Scarcely the same in any 

 two rivers in the kingdom. The Towey is not closed till the 15th of 

 December, and the Camel till the 23d ; while the Tay and the Avon are 

 actually thrown open on the 10th of the same month ; and some rivers in 

 the north of Scotland even in November, before the salmon have even 

 spawned. But, it will be said, in some rivers the fish probably spawn 

 earlier than in others. Rivers, too, are commonly spoken of as late and 

 early, and, it may be presumed, precisely on this account. Not so : 

 the evidence before the Committee conspires to shew, that, though fish do 

 run up some earlier, some later the spawning season is pretty much 

 the same ; for, undoubtedly, the season for the appearance and running 

 down of the fry is the same. The early and the late river does not refer 

 to the spawning season, but to the time when the clean fish the re-invi- 

 gorated kelt the salmon, who has recruited his forces in the sea returns 

 from the sea to the rivers. In some rivers, these do shew themselves 

 earlier than in others; but the difference is manifestly if any credit is 

 to be given to the evidence not very considerable. It is, however, the 

 appearance of these new-run fish that has led the proprietor eager to 

 catch the first stray one that shews itself to solicit the early opening of 

 the rivers. But, in catching these early fish, other descriptions are 

 caught the miserable kelts, that have not yet reached the sea, and the 

 ripe red fish, that have not even spawned. Take, for instance, the Tweed : 

 the close season ends on the 10th of January, and between that day and 

 the 1st of February, about four years ago, 165 salmon were taken, of 

 which not one-thirtieth part was marketable, or at least not in an edible 

 state ; 145 were actually unspawned ; fifteen were kelts, and only five 

 were clean fish. In the Tay, again the largest river in Scotland, and 

 enjoying the character of an early one the fishing opens on the 10th of 

 December. What is the consequence ? That the produce of the fishings, 

 up to the end of January, for nearly two months, will not defray expenses; 

 and even at the stations nearest the sea, which are of course the most 

 successful Lord Grey's, for instance many days may pass in February, 

 and scarcely one clean fish be taken ; and even later in the month, ten 

 foul fish are caught for one sound one. 



What is the effect of this rapacious haste ? The destruction, as we see, 

 of the breeders, and the ruin of the upper fisheries the fishing stations, 

 we mean, higher up the streams. After the open season begins, very few 

 fish, were any so disposed, are able to get far up the rivers, the greater 

 part being intercepted below so much so, that the upper fisheries become 

 scarcely worth any thing ; and some of the witnesses declare, they would 

 willingly give double the existing rent were the close season extended- 

 giving time, that is, for some of the new-run fish to reach the upper 

 stations. But not only are the interests of the upper fisheries thus sacri- 

 ficed to the rapacity of the proprietors below, but the general amount 

 and product of the fisheries diminished by this precipitate sweeping of 

 the streams, and the consequent destruction of the breeders ; and not 

 only so, but facilities are thus given to poaching, and a cover provided 

 for bringing fish into the market at all seasons. For, with the existing 

 state of the laws, fishing, at one river or another, is legal all the year 

 round. If one river is closed, another is open ; and since the process has 

 been discovered of preserving salmon by packing them in ice, the fish 

 can every where be introduced as legal, and, by implication, as sound 

 nobody being able to say from what part of the kingdom they come. 



