2© 
is universal along the coast of Argyle, and among the 
islands ; the central point being the town of Oban, where 
thousands of sea trout are annually caught by persons who 
have not a shadow of right to fish for them, and which are 
openly sold without any interference.” * 
Then, turning to the east coast of Scotland, I refer 
to the testimony of Mr. A. B. Hogarth, Aberdeen, who at 
a public meeting of fishery proprietors, held last April in 
Edinburgh, voluntarily came forward to support a reso- 
lution affirming that salmon in Scotland were decreasing 
in number, and stated, “that the amount of over-netting 
which had taken place on the sea-coasts during the last 
ten years, was something past all comprehension. He 
added, that he had been a fisherman for thirty-five or 
thirty-six years; but it was only within the past ten 
years, that things had gone on to such an extent.” This 
testimony is all the more reliable, being given by a 
tenant of extensive coast fisheries, who had been carrying 
on, without objection or interruption, a practice admitted 
to be alike injurious and illegal. 
These local testimonies from Scotland are confirmed 
by the returns from Billingsgate market, where an accu- 
rate record has long been kept and published of the 
numbers of salmon received there from England, Ire- 
land, Scotland, and other countries. Taking the returns 
of the last ten years, and comparing the average num- 
ber of salmon brought there, during the last five 
years, with the average number brought during the first 
five years, I find there has been during the last five 
years an iucrease from England of 20 per cent., and from 
Ireland an zzcrease of 24 per cent., but from Scotland a 
decrease of 20 per cent. 
* ‘British Industries,’ p. 287 (Stanford, Charing Cross, 1877). 
