SALMON— ENGLISH FISHERY REGULATIONS. . 123 



14tli (Sept. 1st.), Voiyd, Oct. 1st to March 1st (Sept. 1st), Wear, Sept. 17tli to 

 Feb. nth (Sept. 1st), Wharfe, Sept. 25th to Feb. 25th (Sept. 1st), Wye, Glos. 

 Sept. 1st to Jan. 1st, in Herefordshire, Sept. 16th to Feb. 10th, in Monmouth- 

 shire, Oct. 15th to Feb. 1-lth (Sept. 1st), Union, Oct. 21st to March 1st (Sept. 1st). 



Doubtless the early closing of rivers has always been objected to by the salt- 

 water and tidal fishermen* as well as by those who possess fixed engines, and their 

 persistent endeavours to have a portion of the back end of the season abolished 

 has in many instances been met with more or less success. In some rivers, as the 

 Taw and Torridge for example, the gravid fish on first commencing their ascent are 

 of a beautiful silvery colour even after they have entered fresh water for breeding, 

 and the net fishermen have held this as a reason for requesting permission to 

 capture them for the market ; even when such fishes have been opened and shown 

 to be full of spawn, still they have mo.stly declared such to be exceptional 

 examples. t 



It is commonly observed that the interests of the proprietors of salmon 

 fisheries are not identical throughout the entire extent of the stream, occasioning 

 a clashing of views which are inimical to the fisheries, and consequently to the 

 general public. The proprietors of fisheries living in the higher waters often argue 

 with justice, that pollutions are permitted unchecked access ; that immoderate 

 netting is almost continuously carried on in the lower reacheSjJ giving the fish, 



* The Commissioners in 18G0, observed the fishermen who got their living by taking salmon on 

 the estuaries and navigable parts of rivers are generally possessed with the belief that the interests 

 of the proprietors on the ujiper waters are necessarily adverse to their own. The measures which 

 they erroneously conceive necessary for their own ijrotection, would only tend more speedily to 

 destroy the breed of fish, the increase of which they, as appropriators of the first and largest 

 share, are above all parties concerned to promote. It was likewise remarked that these people 

 were " generally complaining and dissatisfied." 



f In investigating such questions it would be well if the investigator were present when the 

 fish are being captured from the river or examples might be brought from other localities and pro- 

 duced in evidence of the fish being clean, as is said to have taken place within the last few years. 



{ " Old Log," in Tlie Field, January 5th, 1884, wrote as follows : — " We have put a stop to 

 the old practice of spearing salmon on the upper shallows, which used to be so regarded in the 

 light of a fair and legitimate sport, that the jjenalized salmon spear still figures as an heraldic 

 device in family arms ; and we exact a heavy penalty from the riparian owner (who expends 

 much care and money in the protection of his river nurseries), if he takes a dozen or two out of 

 the miUions of salmon fry which he may have nurtured ; but we still allow the miners to wash 

 their copper ore where the poison shall flow into the salmon stream, if he can persuade an easily 

 satisfied inspector that any remedial measures would be difiicult or expensive. We flatter 

 ourselves we have made a great advance in salmon culture and legislation ; but, after all, I fancy 

 that our fathers had much better salmon fishing, at infinitely less expense, than we can get, and 

 that their predecessors were better off than they were. As to the salmon of the future, he will be 

 a rare animal for sportsmen if we do not bring more common sense and justice of deaUng in the 

 management of our rivers, and our children's children may perhaps sigh in vain for the ' Salmo 

 salar of the olden times.' " 



On the other hand, P. C. S. remarked, in Nature, September 15th, 1881, that preserving 

 salmon in rivers is an error, and that such has decreased them both in number and size. Prior 

 to preservation inhabitants placed large stones across rivers and threw in gravel where deficient — 

 also with forks they loosened the stones. They watched the spawning fish and killed all the large 

 ones after they had partially or wholly spawned, and which were said to destroy the fry. No 

 pollution in rivers is alluded to, as the number of houses in the vicinity were too few to affect it. 

 Mr. Hubert Hall observed, " It is strange that people should wonder why the salmon disease is a 

 comparatively modern institution. The answer is simple. Because positive checks to over- 

 crowding were applied in the shape of wholesale extermination. Once no man fished seriously 

 unless with a net. His living depended on his success : he was always at it; there was no check, 

 no limit to his operations. When fish failed lower down he shifted his quarters upwards. When 

 the stock began to fail there, and the fish grew shyer every year, he appealed to the Crown, or his 

 lord, and found interest to put up weirs and stop the barge traffic. Then he commenced anew in 

 virgin waters. Take the case of a fishery in the Severn nearly three centuries ago. Here it was 

 ascertained that in one length of the river a whole fishing population was at work, renting from 

 the Crown. In one pool alone three boats and three long nets were always at work, the result 

 was that they caught every living thing in the river. Shads, once absurdly plentiful, had not 

 been seen for five years, salmon very seldom ; worse still, their neighbours above them finding 

 most of the fresh-run fish intercepted, cut off in return all the fish that had ascended to spawn. 

 They even took out all the salmon fry, and this with the approval of everybody, including the 

 Crown. The fact is, we have not, nor have had, any moderation in this matter. In one direction 

 we overfish and overflood our rivers ; in another we over-preserve and pollute them. The result 

 is in half our rivers there are no fish to speak of, in the other half the salmon disease." 



