APPENDIX. 139 



new Act. had not then passed, and the small-mesh 

 net was in use, consequently these salmon, which 

 averaged about five pounds each, were almost all 

 captured ; in number, with me, they exceeded four- 

 fold that of any other year ; and taking into account 

 the sea-fishing at Poolbeg, which is carried on by a 

 great number of persons, the increase was altoge- 

 ther, to the best of my belief, ten-fold upon any 

 previous year, for the last twenty years, as various 

 adverse parties can testify as well as myself ; but 

 the number was not by any means, in my judgment, 

 so remarkable, as the extraordinary difference in the 

 size and quality of the fish. These peal were all 

 what salmon-fishers call ' well fed' fish, which term 

 has a particular signification, well known to sports- 

 men and salmon-fishers ; suffice it to say, they were 

 in appearance, colour, and size as unlike the peal of 

 former years as can well be conceived. This I ac- 

 count for by the parent fish, (those of 1839,) having 

 reached the spawning beds in good time, and in full 

 vigour ; and I conceive that the complaint made in 

 all the rivers of Ireland, that the fish have degene- 

 rated in sif>e and quality, is solely attributable to 

 late fishing. The August fish are all killed, and in 

 September and October good spawners become 

 scarce, and they reach the spawning beds, which 

 are at the upper parts of rivers, (many obstacles 

 intervening,) in a jaded and weakly state, and too 

 late for early spawning. From this experiment, 

 broadly defined as it is, I am entitled to say that 



