SUTHERLAND. 145 



and if the fostering care since exercised in regard to them 

 be compared with the excessive drain they had formerly 

 to withstand, there is every reason to suppose that they 

 are no;v larger producing-waters than then. 



In addition to its reputation as a salmon-angling and 

 producing river, the Shin has likewise had the good 

 fortune to occupy a position altogether unique, in its 

 identification with the investigation of the natural history 

 and habits of the salmon. To the late Mr. Andrew Young, 

 of Invershin, belongs the honour of having first solved 

 this problem. And, it may be said, so exhaustively, 

 and at the same time so accurately, did he investigate 

 the whole subject, that Mr. Young's Natural History and 

 Habits of the Sahnon (Longmans, 1854) still continues 

 to be the first authority upon that subject. 



It may truly be said that up to the year 1845, little or 

 nothing was known of the life-history of the salmon. It 

 seems now almost inconceivable that there should have 

 been at so late a period such a dearth of knowledge of the 

 habits of a fish which has ever occupied a prominent 

 position in the food economy of the nation, and has 

 afforded so many facilities for investigation. To the late 

 Mr. Shaw, of Drumlanrig, belongs the honour of having 

 originated the artificial breeding of salmon for the purposes 

 of scientific investigation ; but this statement ought per- 

 haps only to apply so far that INIr. Shaw was the first 

 who made public the result of his investigations. There 

 appears to be good evidence that Mr. Young's experiments 

 were conducted at quite as early a period as those in 

 connection with which Mr. Shaw laboured ; but the 



