SALMON LEGISLATION. 177 



r-ure of which it lias already made considerable progress, 

 was exhibited by returns to Parliament, showing the 

 declared value of the salmon exported in each of the 

 months of the years 1861 and 1862. The year may, as to 

 salmon, be divided into two equal parts, one during which 

 the fisheries are legally in operation, and the fish in good 

 edible condition, and the other during which fishing and 

 sale are illegal, the fish unwholesome, and their capture 

 destructive of the breed. It appears from the returns, 

 that, measured by value, just about as much salmon was 

 wont to be exported during the illegal as during the 

 legal season ; and as the value of foul fish as compared 

 with clean is seldom more than one-fifth, it would ap- 

 pear that by far the greater part of the salmon exported 

 consisted of fish taken in the breeding season, and in 

 the most unwholesome condition, besides having been 

 stolen from the fishery-owners, and in violation of laws 

 designed to preserve from extinction a valuable article of 

 food. In 1862, the value of the salmon exported was 

 £41,657, and of that value almost precisely a half was 

 exported during those months when there was no legal 

 fishing, and each of four of the close months showed a 

 much larger export than each of four of the other months. 

 In. fact, as soon as the period of the year arrived at which 

 fishing becomes legal, the export of salmon dwindled to 

 a trifle, — several thousand pounds' worth being sent 

 abroad in the last month of the close-time, and only a 

 few hundreds in the first months of the open season. 

 The evidence was complete, that the export trade in 

 salmon was in the main a trade in stolen and unwhole- 

 some commodities. The mode of cure was obvious. 



M 



