4 THE SALMON. 



had been kept pure, and the custom sacred. But to 

 have done with the ancients, both foreign and domestic, 

 although rumours of the dehcacy of the salmon reached 

 the Eomans like a sweet-smelling savour, — though Pliny 

 recorded what he knew of its habits, and Ausonius 

 sang of its beauties and edible qualities, — and a demand 

 for the article instantly sprung up among that knowing 

 and luxurious people, supply for once did not follow 

 demand, because the Alps intervened, and because the 

 secret of packing in ice was only discovered by a Scotch 

 laird, called Dempster of Dunnichen, about 1780 years 

 too late for the Eoman markets. 



Putting together all the evidence that has come down 

 to us, in history, poetry, and ancient laws, the conclusion 

 is that the Three Kingdoms, but more especially Scotland, 

 have from the beginning hitherto been pre-eminently the 

 kingdoms of the salmon — at least, if we take into account 

 consumption as well as production. In old times we 

 obviously had a great comparative superiority over the 

 two or three countries that could then be called our 

 neighbours, and though we have undergone an alarming 

 decay, our superiority as compared with neighbours — 

 Norway, perhaps, excepted — is greater than ever, 

 some nations having decayed much faster than we, and 

 others having reached that extinction to which, until 

 lately, we were only hastening. It is clear that, from 

 Scotland at least, there was in old times a large export 

 of salmon (chiefly salted), many curious proofs of the 

 fact being found among the old Scottish statutes ; and 

 it seems almost equally clear that England also had an 

 over-abundant supply, except in those districts far re- 



