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immensely larger supply than any other town; so that if its 
market records distinguish the different divisions of the United 
Kingdom from which the supplies come, any considerable increase 
or decrease of these, through a series of years, will indicate a 
change in the productiveness of our rivers. 
The number of boxes from Scotland for the years 1877, 1878, 
1879, and 1880, were respectively 28,189, 26,465, 13,929, and 
17,408. The average of these four years is 21,497. But in looking 
back to the previous six years’ returns, it is found that the average 
of these six years was 26,038 boxes. In one of these six years, 
the number of boxes exceeded 31,000. 
This diminution in these ten years is the more remarkable, 
because during that time the numbers of nets and of improvements 
in the modes of fishing have been constantly increasing. 
It is a further indication of the unprosperous condition of the 
Scotch Salmon Fisheries, that, about a year ago, an association 
for the improvement of these fisheries was formed, with the Duke 
of Sutherland at its head, and with a council of influential pro- 
prietors, all more or less interested in the preservation of the 
Scotch Salmon Fisheries. This association, with a membership 
already of 159 persons, and supported by 69 local angling clubs, 
could scarcely have obtained such immediate and influential 
support, had there not been a strong and general conviction on the 
part of the Scotch public, that our salmon fisheries are in a very 
unprosperous state. 
One of the first acts of this association was to send out a cir- 
cular to the chief constables of counties, asking, ‘* Whether there 
are any rivers in your county, which were formerly frequented by 
salmon, but in which they are not now to be found ; and if there be 
such, what are the causes which, in your opinion, now prevent 
salmon entering them ?” 
The answers to this circular showed, “ ¢hat im seven counties 
salmon appear to have forsaken rivers formerly frequented by them.” 
The names of these seven counties are enumerated in the lately 
printed and published report of the association. 
These answers further state, as probable causes of this desertion 
of rivers by salmon, fol/utions, obstructions, and poaching. 
