50 BRITISH FRESHWATER FISHES 



not the bacillus, and dead fishes are sources of 

 infection. 



Those of us who look upon the Salmon as an 

 expensive luxury, find it difficult to realize that in 

 the eighteenth century and even later it sold at times 

 for a penny or twopence a pound, whilst it was a 

 regular condition in indentures of apprenticeship 

 or in agreements between master and servant that 

 Salmon should not be given for dinner more than 

 so many times a week. Nevertheless, the Salmon 

 fisheries have always been highly valued, and the 

 fish has been the subject of special legislation and 

 endless litigation from very early times. 



Macpherson gives some interesting details showing 

 the working of the Lakeland fisheries in the thirteenth 

 century; at an assize held at Carlisle in 1278-79 

 complaint was made that the Prior of St. Bees had 

 two engines called " cupa " for catching Salmon in 

 his pool of Stanyburn, where in times past he had 

 but one, and the other had been set up six years 

 ago without warrant ; this resulted in an order to 

 the sheriff to remove the second " cupa " at the 

 Prior's expense. At the same assize a close-time 

 was decided on, no fishing being allowed from 

 Michaelmas to St. Andrew's Day; also, it was enacted 

 that only nets of large mesh should be used, so that 

 the fry could pass through. At this time the kings 

 of England used to grant rights of fisheries to great 

 nobles, who in turn passed on a part of their 

 privileges to the religious houses, or the latter might 

 receive them direct from the sovereign. 



At the present day the Salmon laws are probably 

 susceptible of improvement ; Mr. Robert Service, 

 writing on Solway fishes in 1892, said: "In value 



