100 THE SALMON. 



to less than a half of what it was when he spoke, and to 

 less than a third of what he had seen it. For the next 

 following twenty-five years, which brings us up to near the 

 beginning of the recent legislation, we are able to give the 

 Tweed rental with precision for each period of five years : 



Rental. 



5 years, 1831 to 1835 inclusive, the average was ,£4241 11 1 



5 „ 183G to 1840 „ „ 3840 G 9 



5 „ 1841 to 1845 „ „ 4878 6 



5 „ 1846 to 1850 „ „ 5022 17 1 



5 „ 1851 to 1855 „ „ 4588 3 2 



And in 1856, the year before Parliament was asked to 

 legislate on what may be called the improved principles 

 now generally adopted, the rent of the Tweed was 

 £4046, 18s. lOd. It would appear, at first sight, that 

 though the decrease from an earlier period had been 

 enormous, there had been no decrease, but rather an in- 

 crease, during the twenty-five years included in the 

 figures last given. Rent alone, however, is, for obvious 

 reasons, an imperfect or misleading mode of measuring 

 the decay of fisheries, because, as quantity diminishes, 

 the tendency of prices is to rise. Leaving the rent, 

 and coming to deal with the produce, we shall see 

 that that had not only decayed much more than the 

 rental, but that it had been sinking even during those 

 periods when the rental had been rising. In 1804, the 

 number of boxes sent from Berwick was 13,000 ; in 

 1816, 11,000; 1818-20, average of 8000. It never 

 afterwards reached 5000, and had at the latest returns, 

 immediately before the recent legislation, sunk to al^out 

 3000. But the truth will be more fully brought out by 

 the followino- figures, which show at a glance not only 



