6 THE SALMON. 



as North American salmon hemn to come within reach 



o 



of men and of markets, they disappear as rapidly as have 

 North American deer. To what, then, do we owe it that 

 there still remains to us in this thickly populated country 

 a fish which has become almost extinct among so many of 

 our neighbours ? Next to the fact that naturally our sup- 

 ply is great in quantity as well as unequalled in qunlity, 

 we owe it to the law having cared for the fish, not always 

 wisely nor altogether well, but better than if it had not 

 cared at all. Of late years, various malign influences 

 affecting the salmon have increased in power, and still 

 more lately — though not, it may be hoped, too late — 

 legislation has sought to provide proportionally powerful 

 preventives and correctives, into whose efficiency and 

 deficiencies it is here proposed to make some inquiry. 



Perhaps, however, there may be people inclined to 

 ask what sufficient interest the publi(^ have in this fish 

 to justify so much making of laws and of books. Among 

 the answers that may be given to such a question are 

 these : that salmon-fisheries are a property as ancient 

 and marketable, to which the owners have as good a 

 right, and which the law is as much bound to protect, as 

 property in lands and houses ; and further, that they 

 provide employment, food, and sport, all these three 

 things, and not least the last, being good things, nnd 

 worthy of preservation. 



The nature of the tenure of salmon-fisheries as Pro- 

 perty is not the same in England and Ireland as in 

 Scotland ; 1)ut in all the three kingdoms the property 

 has for several centuries l)een recognised l)y law, and 

 passed from hand to hand in gift or purchase. In 



