22 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE SALMON. 



feed, where would be the use of the pasturage to 

 the other commoners ? In this conflict of private 

 views, the public is neglected and forgotten ; but the 

 public have nevertheless an interest and a right ; 

 and that interest and right ought to be asserted and 

 established. 



I have mentioned the circumstance of the de- 

 struction of salmon by Seymour's Hutch, as the ob- 

 vious effect of an equally obvious cause, not only 

 to corroborate the preceding remarks, but to refute 

 an opinion which has lately gone abroad, rather 

 specious at first view, but on close investigation 

 obviously groundless and untenable ; and to draw 

 a comparison between the probable correctness of 

 this new opinion on the diminished quantity of sal- 

 mon, and the cause of that scarceness, as pre- 

 viously stated. The new opinion is, that it is 

 owing to the great use of lime in agriculture, in 

 the western counties, that salmon are so scarce. 

 Now let us enquire into the reasonableness and 

 consistency of this opinion. Lime destroys all other 

 fresh-water fish, as well as salmon. That the eel 

 and the trout almost instantaneously die before it, 

 is notorious and indisputable ; but eel and trout are 

 as plentiful as ever. If the use of lime in agricul- 

 ture destroyed the salmon, it would destroy the 

 other fish — it does not destroy the other fish ; 

 therefore, it destroys not the salmon. If the lime 

 used for manure on certain grounds, though they 

 have so little communication with rivers, as 

 to render it very improbable that its baneful 



