36 THE FISHERIES. 



water-power obtained ; a salmon is seen going over, 

 perhaps two, and the whole neighbourhood resounds 

 with the praises of the salmon-pass ; these praises 

 pass current, the engineer approves, and the device 

 is accepted ; the official imprimatur is put upon it, 

 and finally (which is our main objection) it is adopted 

 as a model, and is apphed with slight variations to 

 every or any weir. This is not the way to meet 

 this difficulty ; we would not slur over this import- 

 ant provision, and respecting, as we do to the utter- 

 most, the mill-owner's rights, we would yet sustain 

 and uphold those pubhc rights in the stream, which 

 it is our theme and our most anxious purpose to pre- 

 serve. 



Let us discuss the matter frankly with the mill- 

 owner himself. We acknowledge and feel perfect 

 amity with him, and join him sincerely in deploring 

 the present silence of the mill. We profess some 

 acquaintance, too, with the subject, and are no no- 

 vice in the subtleties of water-power : it forms one 

 of the great resources of the country : we could 

 wish that no stream descended to the sea until it 

 had performed its work of industry ; and that every 

 hill and valley in the land resounded with the clank 

 of the water-wheel. Let the mill-owner, with our 

 hearty welcome, continue to engulf the waters of the 

 river, and throw their concentrated force upon the 

 machinery of his mill, but let him not deny to us 

 those shreds and chppings of the stream which can 

 be turned advantageously to o ir uses, and can be 



