106 THE FISHERIES. 



about to be introduced by the present Government 

 for the improvement of the Irish fisheries, will in this 

 respect, adopt the recommendation of the Select 

 Committee of the late House of Commons. 



Our own opinion is, that no radical improvement 

 in the Salmon-fisheries can be expected, or will take 

 place, until the propensity to over-fishing be peremp- 

 torily met, and an accurate adjustment made, and 

 halmice kept, between the means of capture on the 

 one hand, and the means of reproduction on the 

 other. This restriction upon over-fishing, we con- 

 ceive to be a shie qua non : it should, however, have 

 the necessary incidental aid of other and concurrent 

 remedies ; but we think, if even twenty, or five and 

 twenty days, be taken off the fishing season, at the 

 proper end, that is, when the salmon in large num- 

 bers are on their actual passage to the spawning- 

 beds, that, very remarkable and immediate results 

 will follow, derivable from two sources. We think 

 that, from this single restorative measure, the in- 

 crease of food to the community, and of advantage 

 to the Salmon-nsheries, may be predicated with 

 something like certainty, and be estimated in the 

 aggregate only by some great arithmetical approxi- 

 mation. 



For years we have harped upon this topic, know- 

 ing its paramount importance; the task, however, 

 has not been an unpleasing one. There is perhaps 

 no more genuine source of satisfaction than that 

 of promulgating a plain and unsophisticated fact, 



