42 
APPENDIX C (ee page 21). 
In the November number of the /ortnightly Review (for 1881) 
there is an instructive article on the Salmon Fisheries of Great 
Britain by Mr. Fred. Eden. The views he expresses will have a 
useful effect in awakening public interest to a subject of much 
national importance. Mr. Eden, having acted for several years 
in all parts of the United Kingdom as Government Inspector and 
Commissioner, in regard to Salmon Fisheries, has had great 
opportunity of knowing the condition of those fisheries, and of 
judging what is necessary for their prosperity. 
Mr. Eden is evidently apprehensive that, unless some strong 
measures are taken, the stock of salmon will soon disappear from 
our rivers. ‘To prevent this, he says it is absolutely necessary to 
lessen the catch of salmon. With that view he recommends the 
entire stoppage of net fishing in rivers, except where the tide 
reaches ; and even in tidal waters, he is for prohibiting night 
fishing. Another suggestion he makes, is the formation of a 
central office, so that, instead of “separate establishments and 
different officials for each of the three kingdoms,” there should 
be more uniformity of management, by what he calls a ‘ consoli- 
dation of the Fishery Offices,” viz. by the creation, as I suppose, 
of an office in London. 
Mr. Eden regrets that he is unable to supply statistics, or any 
official evidence, to justify his convictions as to the unprosperous 
condition of our fisheries; no small proof, by the way, of the 
lamentable absence of information regarding an important national 
industry, which every well-constituted Government ought to 
possess. 
Some amount of statistical information, however, may be ob- 
tained from the official record kept at Billingsgate Market, of the 
number of boxes of salmon which arrive there from different parts 
of the United Kingdom. True, London is not the only large town 
to which British salmon are sent for sale; but it receives an 
