VALUE OF THE SALMON. V 



learned about the value of Irish fisheries leads to little, 

 except the conclusion that neither of the two statements 

 referred to— neither that which shows £200,000, nor 

 that which shows £12,307, 15s., — is useful for much 

 except misguidance. In a considerably modified de- 

 gree, a similar remark applies to a Parliamentary Return 

 published in this present year, purporting to give the 

 name, value, and mode of capture, of every salmon- 

 fishery in Scotland. As this is the first attempt to 

 procure ofiicial or authentic information as to the whole 

 Scotch fisheries, it is welcome as a beginning ; but it 

 has the rudeness and imperfection of a beginning. . It 

 both omits and misstates. Many fisheries are not in- 

 cluded at all ; of nearly 700 fisheries named, the value 

 of 80, or nearly a sixth of the whole, is not given ; 

 the principle on which the valuation is made is not 

 stated ; it appears to have been made on quite differ- 

 ent principles in different cases ; and in the great ma- 

 jority of cases, the statement is far below the fact. 

 Thus, the annual profits of the Duke of Richmond's 

 fisheries on the Spey have been stated before Parlia- 

 mentary Committees, by both the late and present 

 Dukes, to amount to close upon £13,000 (more than 

 the value of the whole of the Irish fisheries as officially 

 returned !) ; but this Return puts at only about £9000 the 

 value of all the fisheries in both the counties in which the 

 Richmond or Gordon fisheries are situated. The actual 

 rental or annual value of three Scotch fishery districts — 

 the Tay, the Spey, and the twin rivers entering the sea 

 at Aberdeen — amounts to nearly £40,000 ; and yet this 

 Return makes the value for all Scotland only £52,615. 



