DECAY OF SALMON. 101 



the decline in produce during forty-five years, but also, 

 by comparison with the tabulated figures preceding, the 

 degree in which the produce may decline even while the 

 rent rises; in other words, how much more and sooner 

 the loss falls on the public than on the proprietors. The 

 figures are the condensed essence of a great mass of re- 

 turns, showing the average annual produce of the Tweed, 

 during each period of five years from 1811 down to 1855 

 (a year after which, alarm being taken, statistics ceased 

 to be attainable), and require no further preface, even to 

 those least acquainted with salmon nomenclature, than 

 this, that " salmon" means the adult of the Salmo solar, 

 whether two or twenty years old, which has ascended 

 and propagated at least once before; that "grilse" is 

 the same fish in a maiden condition, on its first ascent ; 

 and that " trout" is the Salmo eriox of naturalists, a 

 comparatively coarse and low-priced fish, nowhere found 

 in such proportionate abundance as in the Tweed : 



Salmon. Grilse. Trout. 



1811 to 1815, . 40,297 68,057 31,235 



1816 to 1820, . 37,938 87,089 48,078 



1821 to 1825, . 22,930 57,647 62,475 



1826 to 1830, ,. $ 9,804 53,990 48,864 



1831 to 1835, . 14,416 65,112 69,121 



1836 to 1840, . 14,149 52,283 54,877 



1841 to 1845, . 18,846 81,047 69,712 



1846 to 1850, . 11,479 56,190 49,630 



1851 to 1855, . 9,085 23,905 32,764 



In supplement, we may give separately the actual 

 produce of the season 1855, which is included, of course, 

 in the last of the above quinquennial periods : 



Salmon. Grilse. Trout. 



6,329 13,952 23,736 



