ON THE CLOSE SEASON. 27 



If cock partridges were to be shot in the season 

 of love, and the hens were to be killed when in 

 the act of incubation, these animals would soon 

 be as scarce as salmon ; if we wish to increase the 

 breed, the same policy should be observed with re- 

 gard to both. — At these times, then, the fish should 

 be neither obstructed nor taken. 



Now the .great influx of the salmon into the 

 rivers, being in the fall of the year, and their ob- 

 ject being to find proper places to deposit their 

 ova, this is the time when fishermen, tempted by 

 the number of the fish, and losing sight of the 

 ultimate consequences, are so anxious to catch 

 them ; — their golden dreams of avarice getting 

 the better of their judgments. But this is the 

 very time that not a single fish should be de- 

 stroyed, taken, obstructed, or even disturbed ; and 

 the result of such a number of breeding fish as- 

 cending to their natural destinations, and being 

 protected at those places from the spearers and the 

 fish-locks, would be so vast an increase as would 

 gratify the most sanguine expectations of gain, the 

 most delicate taste, and the most craving appetite. 

 But if the representations of individuals, who are 

 blinded by an apparent interest, even though they 

 may be sincere and actually believe what they 

 wish, should be allowed to counteract all those 

 obvious dictates of nature, which regulate the mo- 

 tions of the fish ; in vain shall we look for the 

 improvement of that which is now the subject of 

 much complaint from one end of the kingdom to 



