SALMON 



117 



Schoodic or Landlocked Salmon of the United 

 States, found in lakes, is a variety of S. salar ; 

 tlie California Salmon (S. quinnat) and the Rain- 

 bow Trout (S. irideus) are also mentioned in the 

 article PISCICULTURE. 



SALMON DISEASE. This disease is caused hy a 

 fungus always present in running water, called 

 Saprolegnia ferax, which assumes fatal activity in 

 certain years and in certain rivers, and attacks fish, 

 first assailing those that have sustained injuries, 

 and kelts, and afterwards clean fish also. It 

 attacks the poll, the fins, the sides, and gills of 

 the fish, and from the outside eats inwards, 

 causing ulcers and ultimately death. It is a fresh- 

 water disease, and cannot exist or originate in the 

 sea ; and salt applied to the diseased places has in 

 certain cases been found to act as a cure. A 

 mysterious thing about the disease is that for 

 many years the Saprolegnia ferax may remain 

 innocuous in a river, and then develop into fatal 

 activity and attack the fish in the river ; and we 

 are at present quite ignorant as to what are the 

 causes, climatic or otherwise, to which this is 

 owing, although many things have been stated 

 to be the causes of the salmon disease by the 

 numerous witnesses examined during the various 

 special inquiries to which it has given rise. Over- 

 stocking, pollutions, impassable weirs, a series of 

 dry seasons, &c. have been assigned as the causes 

 of the disease. But in their Report of 1880 on the 

 salmon disease Messrs Buckland, Walpole, and 

 Young write as follows upon this subject : ' AH 

 the different circumstances and conditions which 

 were stated by different witnesses to be the causes 

 of the disease are to be found existing in rivers 

 wh?re the disease has never been heard of? We have 

 found the disease existing in polluted and in pure 

 rivers, in rivers obstructed by weirs and in nvers 

 where there are no obstructions, in under-stocked 

 and in fully stocked rivers, in rivers flowing from 

 or through lakes and in rivers with no lakes Itelong- 

 ing to their catchment basins ; in short, in rivers 

 with the most opposite physical features ; and we 

 have been unable to detect in the Tweed, Nith, 

 Annan, Doon, Esk, Eden, and other rivers attacked 

 by the disease any special conditions to which the 

 disease can be attributed which are not likewise to 

 be found in some of the rivers which have escaped 

 its ravages. Those who are acquainted with only 

 one or two salmon rivers are rather apt to imagine 

 that in the pollution, obstruction, or overstocking 

 of the rivers with which they are familiar they 

 have discovered the true cause of the disease. But 

 to those who have an extensive acquaintance with 

 the salmon rivers of Great Britain the most per- 

 plexing thing connected with the present inquiry 

 is that every cause, without exception, which has 

 been assigned as the true origin of the salmon 

 disease in infected rivers is to be found in rivers 

 where no disease exists, or has ever been known 

 to exist.' The salmon disease is occasionally coin- 

 cident with an excellent fishing season, as has 

 been proved on the Deveron, Don, and Tweed. The 

 last-named river has probably suffered more from 

 the salmon disease than any other river in the 

 .United Kingdom, as the Report of the Tweed 

 Commissioners for 1891 shows. There were taken 

 out of the river and buried during the year 6,429 

 ti-li ; while during the ten previous years, 1881-90, 

 tin; number of fish so dealt with was 74,930, 

 nuiking a total of 81,359, composed of 58,386 

 salmon, 9,214 grilse, and 13,7.39 sea-trout. In the 

 fcame Report it is stated that the total weight of 

 diseased salmon, grilse, and sea-trout taken out of 

 tin; Tweed and buried was 29 tons 7 cwt. and 9 Ib. 

 in 1889-90, and 31 tons 3 cwt. and 80 lt>. in 1890-91. 

 SALMON-FISHERY LAWS.- The salmon is pro- 

 tected by special laws in the United Kingdom. 



(1) As to England. The right to fish salmon in 

 the sea and navigable rivers belongs to the public 

 as a general rule ; and the right to fish salmon in 

 rivers not navigable belongs to the riparian owner 

 on each bank, the light of each extending up to 

 the centre line of the stream. But though the 

 public have, as a rule, the right to fish in the sea 

 and navigable rivers, there are various exceptions, 

 which arose in this way. Previously to Magna 

 Charta the crown, whether rightly or wrongly, 

 assumed power to make grants to individuals 

 generally the large proprietors of lands adjacent 

 whereby an exclusive right was given to such in- 

 dividuals to fish for the salmon within certain 

 limits. This right, when conferred, often applied 

 to the shores of the sea, but more generally applied 

 to navigable rivers and the mouths of such rivers. 

 The frequency of such grants was one of the griev- 

 ances redressed by Magna Charta, which prohibited 

 the crown thenceforth from making such grants. 

 But the then existing grants were saved, ana hence 

 every person who at the present day claims a several 

 or exclusive fishery in navigable rivers must show 

 that his grant is from the crown, and is as old 

 as Magna Charta. It is not, however, necessary 

 that he be able to produce a grant or chain of 

 grants of such antiquity ; for if he has been in un- 

 disturbed possession for a long time say sixty 

 years and upwards it is presumed that such title 

 is as old as Magna Charta, and had a legal 

 origin. When a person is entitled to a salmon- 

 fishery (and if he is entitled to a salmon-fishery 

 he is entitled also to the trout and other fish 

 frequenting the same place) he is nevertheless 

 subjected to certain restrictions as to the mode 

 of fishing salmon. These restrictions are imposed 

 by the Salmon-fishery Acts of 1861, 1865, and 

 1873, which repealed prior acts of parliament. 

 No person is now entitled to use lights, spears, 

 gaffs, strokehalls, or snatches, or other like in- 

 struments for catching salmon ; nor can fish roe 

 be used for the purpose of fishing. All nets used 

 for fishing salmon must have a mesh not less than 

 2 inches in extension from knot to knot, or 8 inches 

 measured round each mesh when wet. No new 

 fixed engine of any description is to be used. A 

 penalty is incurred for violating these enactments, 

 and also for taking unseasonable salmon, or for 

 taking, destroying, or obstructing the passage of 



Siung salmon, or disturbing spawning salmon, 

 uring close time no salmon can DC legally sold or 

 be in the possession of any person for sale ; and 

 such fixed engines as are still legal must be re- 

 moved or put out of gear during close time. By 

 the Salmon-fishery Act, 1873, a great change has 

 been made in the law regulating the annual close 

 time. By bylaw, boards of conservators can vary 

 the close season, and the sale of fish in the extended 

 open time is made legal. The doctrine of a uni- 

 form close season for every river in England and 

 W'ales is abolished, and each river can now fix its 

 own close time within the following rules : ( 1 ) For 

 every salmon river in England and Wales there 

 must be at least 154 days close time for every kind 

 of fishing but for rod and line ; (2) such close time 

 if it does not begin before must do so on the 1st 

 Novemler for alt kinds of fishing but with rod and 

 line ; (3) for 92 days in each year there must be no 

 fishing for salmon whatever; (4) if the 92 days 

 do not begin before, they must begin on the 1st 

 December of each year ; (5) no salmon can be sold 

 after the 3d day of November in any case; (6) if 

 no bylaw has been made on the subject of annual 

 close time the times remain as at present, and no 

 person can fish for, catch, or attempt to catch 

 salmon between the 1st of September and the 1st 

 of February, both inclusive, except with rod and 

 line; (7) if the board of conservators have altered 



