24 THE FISHERIES. 



may be feared, from encouraging the erection of fix- 

 tures in the sea, in the immediate vicinity of piers 

 and artificial harbours ; the present observations are 

 confined merely to the monopohzing efi'ect of such 

 an engine, as a fishing engine ; and to the equity and 

 policy of not extending the enabhng power beyond 

 its strict letter, by providing, that tlie net shall be 

 ''attached to the shore" adjoining the land, in right 

 of which the party uses it, and not otherwise. This 

 provision will supply an evident omission, and pre- 

 vent a destructive monopoly, and will secure equal 

 rights to all entitled to use those eno-iues on the 

 sliore. 



The next amendment of importance proposed by 

 the Bill before us relates to the close season ; 

 amongst the many enactments a Fishery Bill must 

 unavoidably contain, we select, as we proceed, only 

 the most prominent. The close season is the period 

 appointed by law for the cessation of salmon fishing. 

 If we fish too late, and thereby destroy almost all 

 our brood fish, we cannot reasonably complain of 

 the dechne of our fisheries. This question of close 

 season, however, involves many intricate and tech- 

 nical details, but the gist of it, is this, that if we fish 

 too late, we kill the hen that lays the golden egg. 

 This subject of the close season was very fully dis- 

 cussed in some papers published in 1844, which are 

 printed in the Fourth Annual Report of the Com- 

 missioners of Irish Fisheries to Parliament, and we 



