OUR SALMON FISHERIES. 153 
very reason Mr. Huxley is puzzled. Why, for instance, in a year 
of almost universal and unprecedented abundance, should the 
Tyne, the most prolific salmon river in the country, and one of the 
two rivers chosen by Mr. Huxley in his report for 1882 as illustra- 
tions of the beneficial effects of legislation, last year show a falling 
off instead of sharing in the general prosperity? Again, why 
should the takes of salmon and sea-trout be almost identical one 
year, diminish in almost equal ratio the following year, and then 
part company, the take of salmon increasing while the take of sea- 
trout diminishes? Mr. Huxley is equally unable to establish any 
consistent relation between the take of salmon and the proportion 
of grilse present in succeeding years, a large take being sometimes 
followed by scarcity and sometimes by abundance of grilse. He, of 
course, does not suggest any doubt as to the utility of fishery 
legislation. In his present report he gives an interesting history of 
the fishing arrangements on the Severn in order to prove the utility of 
legislation ; but he points out that the abundance of salmon in the 
Severn in 1862 could not possibly have been the result of the Sal- 
mon Fishery Act of 1861, though it gave a useful prestige to that 
Act in public opinion at the outset. Every salmon river with 
which man interferes is, in fact, subject to two sets of conditions: 
the one set, due to the work of man, are conspicuous, and the other 
set are obscure. The futility of many well-meant attempts to 
improve the fisheries arises from the tendency to act as if every- 
thing depended on the regulation of the artificial conditions. 
Like most inspectors when they get fairly to work, Mr. Huxley 
appears to have developed some sympathy for manufacturers. He 
admits that salmon fisheries must not interfere ‘“ unnecessarily ” 
with manufacturing and mining industries of far greater pecuniary 
value. Still he thinks that something may be done, and that the 
representatives of the various industries should pay some regard to 
the present and prospective value of salmon fisheries. The encou- 
raging fact is that while it is easy to reduce a salmon river to the 
verge of destruction by weirs and pollutions, “Nature can, with 
anything like fair play, triumph over extremely serious difficulties.” 
At present, at any rate, statistics look hopeful, the salmon take in 
England and Wales last year having been nearly 50 per cent. greater 
than in 1882, which in its turn showed an increase upon 1881. The 
most important work which is now in progress appears to be the 
providing of weirs with “passes” as opportunity serves. Some of 
the landowners and angling clubs object to the admission of salmon 
to upper waters as being likely to spoil the trout fishing, but Mr. 
Huxley submits that the case of the Usk affords strong evidence that 
valuable trout and salmon fisheries may exist together. Salmon 
disease did not extend to any fresh watersheds last year, with the 
exception of a slight outbreak in the Severn. The two points 
