well as determining the rules and regulations to govern fish- 

 eries on the sea coasts. If bag nets, or other engines, hitherto 

 considered illegal, are henceforth to be used legally at the 

 mouth of rivers to take the salmon, and if the vested rights, as 

 they were hitherto considered, of the proprietors of river fish- 

 eries are to be done away with, let them have some compensa- 

 tion for their loss. It cannot be supposed they view with 

 resignation the spoliation, as they consider it, of their pro- 

 perty. 



With respect to the Ballyshannon salmon fishery, I may 

 state the fact, that my father, the late Dr. Sheil, made many 

 substantial improvements in it; and under his judicious ma- 

 nagement the produce of it was increased, otherwise the enor- 

 mous rent of 1,1 50Z. yearly, and the great expenses attendant 

 on it, would have proved a ruinous speculation to a less enter- 

 prizing tenant. My father took every possible means of pro- 

 tecting the breed of salmon in the rivers flowing into the lake, 

 and being much regarded in the county of Donegal, and 

 esteemed by all the gentlemen in Fermanagh and Cavan, the 

 salmon fishery, by their influence, was preserved in a great 

 measure from poachers and depredation. The conduct of my 

 father in politics in Ulster, his patriotic principles, and efforts 

 to promote concord and harmony amongst people of all per- 

 suasions, attached many to his interest, and procured for him 

 the general good-will. The celebrated Sir Humphrey Davy, 

 in his work Salmonia, describes the liberal reception at Bally- 

 shannon of gentlemen anglers, his zeal to promote their amuse- 

 ment, and his hospitality and courteous manners, which ren- 

 dered him, as the proprietor of the salmon fishery, deservedly 

 popular. During his lifetime no person, with any pretension to 

 the education or rank of a gentleman, ever attempted to injure 

 the salmon fishery, far less to conduct a system of inroad and 

 hostility ; and the general regard of all classes accompanied 

 him to the grave, and still attends his memory. An inde- 

 scribable sympathy and kind feeling towards my father's orphan 

 daughters (left dependent at his death on the property of the 

 salmon fishery), pervaded all ranks in the county, and each 



