4 THE SALMON FISHERIES. 
1794 and 1814 at Boulter’s Lock near Taplow, and that ten 
years later the “last salmon” was taken at this fishery. 
In 1816, however, 6 cwt. of salmon were taken in the 
River Lea. 
In the Wear, again, which is now seriously polluted, 
and has by other causes been almost denuded of fish, 
salmon were at one time abundant. In 1348, the monks 
of the Priory of Finchdale, near Durham, according to 
ancient documents, after supplying their own wants, sold 
salmon, the produce of their fishery, to the value of 
49 12s. 8d. How many fish this sum represented may be 
gathered from the fact that there is an entry, made at the 
same time, of the purchase by these same monks of a 
bull and three cows for #1 12s. In 1439 they sold 
439 6s. 8a. worth of salmon, and in 1530 they sold to 
the convent of Durham alone 396 salt salmon and 38 salt 
grilse. In 1532 the convent of Durham brought from 
other persons in the neighbourhood 550 fresh salmon, at 
prices ranging from 6s. to 8s. per dozen. 
Instances like these might be multiplied, but enough has 
been said to show how vastly more productive of salmon our 
rivers must have been in olden times than they are now, 
Their present condition, however, is a marked improve- 
ment upon the state of things that prevailed a quarter of a 
century ago, and may be said to bear somewhat the same 
relation to their state prior to 1861, when the existing laws 
for their protection came into force, as their natural 
capabilities bear to their actual productiveness. In 1863 
the whole produce of the salmon fisheries of England and 
Wales was estimated, from data collected by the Inspectors 
of Salmon Fisheries, to be worth no more than £18,000 a 
year. In 1868, after seven years of protection, their value 
was calculated to have increased to £30,000 a year, and, 
