1 64 LAKES AND RIVERS, 



of the enemies of our fish, it is not difficult to discern 

 the cause of variation in price. We read in the account 

 in Land and Water (March, 1866), of the salmon 

 fishery of the Derwent, that salmon at Workington r 

 at the beginning of the present century, might be had 

 from one penny to sixpence per pound ; fifty years later 

 its cost was from sixpence to one shilling per pound. 



The river was to a certain extent protected as long 

 ago as the year 1285. Sixty or 'seventy years ago 

 the celebrated Hall fisheries of the Derwent were L let 

 out at ;i2o a year. The tenant was able to make 

 the immense profit of ; 10,400 per annum. But 

 twenty years ago the tenant, although only paying 

 ^72 a year, and salmon worth double or much more 

 than it is now, yet such was the scarcity of fish, 

 that small as the rent appears there was little more 

 sold than to pay for it and the expense of working. 



The method of fishing at this period was fatal to 

 the increase of fish. A weir was built in a sloping 

 form entirely across the river, and over the weir was 

 placed a row of perpendicular iron bars ; between the 

 iron bars coops or fish-traps were placed. The salmon, 

 when passing up the river, were caught in these traps; 

 but in order more effectually to catch every fish, as 

 it was hoped, at a later period, the iron bars were 

 altered in position and placed horizontally, also much 

 more closely. The weir, the bars, and. the coops 

 were ruinous to the fish, and except when floods 

 came heavily down the river, few, if any, could pass 

 the obstruction on their way up. However, in 1804, 

 an Act of Parliament, called the "Solway Act," 

 fixed the " fence " time from the 25th of September 



