APPENDIX. 129 



tion, if necessary, directly under the notice of your 

 Excellency, as being the best mode of ensuring at- 

 tention and effect to anything calculated to benefit 

 the country. 



I do not fear, my Lord, that this letter will be 

 considered by your Excellency, unimportant for pub- 

 lic purposes. To a professional salmon-fisher it may 

 be said, ''' serve mankind and you serve yourself;" 

 there is therefore, something of personal interest in 

 it ; but there is too, I hope, some portion of a bet- 

 ter motive — the man who may happen to possess 

 some knowledge that may be useful to his fellow- 

 man, and who withholds or conceals it, must feel 

 that it is an omission, for which he is accountable. 



My Lord, the Salmon-fisheries of Ireland are ra- 

 pidly going to decay : the causes are patent to the 

 fe^, though obscure to the many ; but the industrial 

 requirements of the country demand an immediate 

 investigation into the subject. As an article of or- 

 dinary food, salmon is fast disappearing : the pre- 

 sent price is the best test — consignments of Limerick 

 salmon fetched one shiUing and sixpence per lb. in 

 the wholesale market on Saturday last ! One shil- 

 ling and sixpence per pound for salmon, in the month 

 of May, is the finger on the wall, which points to the 

 extinction of the Irish Fisheries. 



It may be asked, what is the cause of this rapid 

 decline ? The answer is, the defective laws upon 

 the subject. Acts of ParUament prepared by emi- 

 nent lawyers, and confident engineers, but defective 



G Z 



