THE SALMON AND CHANNEL FISHERIES, 1SQ 



Fishing with hook and line is nothing more than 

 a confirmation of the old English favorite recrea- 

 tion of angling, which is excepted by the statute 

 of Elizabeth ; and which, I should hope, no one 

 will think of proposing to abridge. 



The objects of the act are "salmon, salmon peal, 

 and salmon kind." By the first must be meant 

 the salmo salar, or common salmon ; as to the 

 second, the salmon peal, there is a power given to 

 kill them, under the supposition, I should imagine, 

 that this fish constituted a distinct species from the 

 former. I trust, however, it has been already satisfac- 

 torily shown to be young salmon, as its very name 

 denotes. It proceeds from the pea of the sal- 

 mon ; of which millions are destroyed in traps and 

 illegal nets, to the very great prejudice of the 

 salmon fisheries. There is not the slightest dis- 

 tinction between this fish and the full-grown 

 salmon, either internally or externally, excepting 

 in size ; and salmon vary from ten to nearly eighty 

 pounds* As to the loose expression, "salmon 

 kind" no one can tell what it means : it is so 

 indefinite, that we can but guess at its signification. 

 There are nearly thirty different species of fish 

 which authors include under the genus salmo, such 

 as the chars, the fario or trouts, and a great 

 many others; but the material, if not the sole 

 object of all the leges scriptce, has been the salmo 

 salar or common salmon, which includes as one 

 species, the salmon, the peal, and the trough or 

 sea trout, of which, I believe, there is but one 



