52 THE FISHERIES. 



Suir, Nore, Barrow, and some others, which may be 

 termed second-class rivers ; the average here also 

 will range high, though accurate returns cannot be 

 given, as public rights of fishery prevail so largely 

 in those rivers. Then we have in great abundance 

 third-class rivers, such as the Laune, the Maine, the 

 Boyne, the Liifey, and a host of others ; in all, we 

 believe, about 120 salmon rivers. Most of the third- 

 class rivers will average from ten to twenty tons 

 each ; and even the most inconsiderable mountain 

 streams of Kerry, and other districts, will yield, 

 or rather, we should say, did yield, their five or six 

 tons annually, of salmon and sea trout ; and all this 

 exclusive of the capture of salmon in the sea, and at 

 the mouths. Here, then, is a vast aggregate, the 

 annual produce of our Salmon-fisheries down to 1842. 

 But how stands the matter now ? Let the proprie- 

 tors of the large Salmon-fisheries above mentioned 

 state what amount of rent they now receive from 

 fisheries, which previously had paid each an an- 

 nual rent of one, two, or three thousand pounds. 

 The Irish Society, or London Company, can inform 

 us what rent they got for the Foyle fisheries pre- 

 vious to that year. We believe we are right in 

 saying the rent was £3,200 per annum ; but what 

 is the rent now ? The Foyle fishery was set up to 

 be let last February, in the Guildhall, London, and 

 uo bidder could be found rash enough to take it. In 

 every district of the country ruin has stalked among 

 the fisheries : from the records of the Court of 



