AS in the friths, all concur in reprobating the present 

 most anomalous state of the law. There is, no doubt, 

 as at all times, there will be, when private interests inter- 

 fere, some difference of opinion as to the nature and ex- 

 tent of the necessary alterations. But all are agreed that, 

 to some extent or other, revisal and amendment are in- 

 dispensable. 



The present system, however, is not defective in unifor- 

 mity alone; nor would its evils be corrected though any one 

 of the local regulations now in use, were to be fixed on 9 

 and extended in its operation as an universal rule over 

 the whole kingdom. The duration of the fishing and 

 close seasons ought to be regulated, and can be regulated 

 properly? only by accommodating it strictly to the known 

 habits and history of the fish. 



The common Salmon is a native of the North, and de- 

 lights in rather a cold climate. It is to be found upon 

 the northern coasts both of Europe and America. But 

 the remarkable purity and moderate temperature of the 

 rivers and seas of this country, neither so warm in sum- 

 mer, nor so cold in winter, as the rivers and seas in the same 

 latitude in other parts, render them more particularly 

 the haunts of the Salmon. We have, at least until within 

 these few years, been accustomed to see the fish chiefly 

 in our rivers ; and, therefore, it is vulgarly regarded as a 

 river fish. But its proper and natural abode is in the 

 ocean and the estuaries on the coasts : though at particular 

 seasons, and when impelled by the various instincts to 

 which it is subject, it leaves the sea for a time, and re- 

 sorts to the fresh waters. 



The most important of these instincts, and it is the 

 one with which, at present, we have to clo,< is that con- 



