APPENDIX. 179 



think, no reason to doubt that by such means a vast 

 addition may be made to the produce of our salmon- 

 fisheries. The induction to that conclusion at all 

 events is simple and reasonable. We know the im- 

 mense productive powers of the salmon species ; we 

 see that by allowing the fish to choose their own 

 ground it is impossible to protect them throughout 

 the whole course of a river, and that great waste 

 and loss necessarily ensue — the breeders themselves 

 become the prey of poachers and other enemies to a 

 pitiable extent, and are liable to other accidents, 

 while the pea in the very act of being deposited in 

 the gravel, is devoured in mouthfuls by trout, which 

 hover about the spawning beds ; or when deposited 

 is raked up by water fowl, or swept away by floods ; 

 and when at length the infant fry make their ap- 

 pearance, they must live and grow up amongst their 

 enemies, who prey upon them in detail, swallowing 

 them ahve, like the pike, by the mouthful. These 

 destructive agencies were doubtless necessary at some 

 prm eval or remote period, to check the productive- 

 ness of fishes ; but the evil to be apprehended now, is 

 not excess of any species of river fish, but exhaustion 

 and diminution, and it would appear to be a fit and pro- 

 per direction of the will — indeed, to be imperative 

 upon us, to use all due efforts of art, to preserve and 

 uphold this species, and maintain the stock of all 

 other species of fish in our rivers. 



In conclusion, we must again turn with pleasure 

 to contemplate this vase, with its living occupants, 



