INTRODUCTION. 



THE charter granted by King James the First, on the 9th 

 day of April, in the year 1623, to Henry Lord Folliott, is an 

 important document, so far as the right of fishery in Lough 

 Erne, and the waters flowing into it, is concerned. This 

 charter conveyed the right of the fishery ; and is the founda- 

 tion of Colonel Conolly's title, and that of the lessees under 

 him, to the salmon and eel fisheries of Ballyshannon, as he has 

 succeeded to the rights of Lord Folliott, not only in the 

 fishery, but to the possession of large tracts of landed pro- 

 perty, described in the same charter. James the First came 

 to the throne in 1603, and died in 1625, and the charter was 

 granted two years before his death. It was sent over to Ire- 

 land by King James, and signed with his own hand, and is 

 amongst the records in Dublin. 



As the breed of salmon in most of the Irish rivers has de- 

 clined, and as there is now a general open exertion used by 

 various persons on the sea coast, and at the mouths of rivers, 

 to capture the salmon, and intercept them by means of bag 

 nets on their passage into the rivers, it appears to me that the 

 whole of the salmon fishery question, both as it regards ori- 

 ginal charters, and the right of exclusive fishery, as well as the 

 question of the preservation of the breeding fish in the rivers, 

 should be carefully considered ; and then some new Act of Par- 

 liament be passed, applicable to the present state of various in- 

 terests, and defining the boundaries of the river fisheries, as 



