174 APPENDIX. 



paying down £5,000 as the purchase money of the 

 fishery, these gentlemen resolved to embark their 

 energies and inteUigence, as well as capital, in this 

 new and interesting pursuit — they have determined 

 to test to the uttermost the merits of the artificial 

 process of production, and solve the question — can 

 the salmon-fisheries of this kingdom be restored to 

 their former abundant state of productiveness ; and 

 in solving this important question, they are resolved. 

 we hear, to spare neither trouble nor expense. The 

 Galway Salmon-fishery is one which lias been very 

 much exhausted, and Messrs. Ashworth, as a means 

 of recruiting it, at once decided upon putting into 

 operation the artificial process ; accordingly, they 

 caused the necessary reservoirs for this purpose to 

 be constructed, and all other suitable arrangements 

 to be made during the autumn of last year. All 

 the necessary preparations were completed before 

 the winter set in, and in December last, the opera- 

 tions for depositing the spawn were commenced. 

 Some full-grown salmon, male and female, about to 

 spawn, were taken from the river — the spawn was 

 carefully exuded from them by pressure, and the 

 parent fish were then returned uninjured to the 

 river ; the spawn so obtained was immediatel}^ de- 

 posited in gravel beds, previously prepared, watered 

 by artificial rills : in March and April of the pre- 

 sent year, thousands and tens of thousands of the 

 young brood came to life — they emerged from the 

 gravel like blades of corn issuing from the ground ; 



