DECAY OF SALMON. 91 



fish, there is no doubt whatever ; though we would 

 remark, in passing, that this fact must be taken in con- 

 nexion with the other fact, that from the earliest periods 

 both the English and Scottish lesjislatures exercised a 

 rigorous, and on the whole a w^ise care over the fisheries. 

 There were no statistics in the old days, so that if there 

 is any need for proof where there is neither doubt nor 

 denial, w^e must l)e content to take it in chance frag- 

 ments. There is evidence of a considerable export of 

 Scotch salmon (pickled), chiefly to Flanders and France, 

 so early as 1380 ; and a municipal order atRheims, of 

 that date, contains regulations for its sale. In the time 

 of Richelieu, an obscure Scotchman, of the name of Mon- 

 teith, from the neighbourhood of Stirling, having pre- 

 sented himself at the French Court, and being asked of 

 w^hat family he was, audaciously answered, " Monteith 

 de Salmonnet ;" and so natural seemed such a designa- 

 tion from a Scotchman that the answer was unsuspect- 

 ingly accepted, the adventurer was received by the name 

 he had given, and under that name wrote a book in 

 French, which is still extant. Among the oldest state- 

 ments of what was to be learned of the extent of the 

 salmon fisheries by travelling in Scotland, are those given 

 about two hundred years ago ill the curious book of the 

 Cromwellian trooper, Captain Francks, already mentioned. 

 Francks (from whose descriptions, by the bye, it is clear 

 that the art of salmon- angling w^as practised then almost 

 precisely as it is now) takes occasion at most of his halt- 

 ing-places to make a short descant on the al)unt'ance of 

 the salmon in Scotland. Thus, of Stirling, he writes : — 

 " The Forth relieves the countrx' with lier great plenty 



