102 



THE SALMON. 



And also the take for 1856, which is not included in 

 the table : 



Salmon. 

 4,885 



Grilse. 



33,992 



Trout. 



30,597 



For the full understanding and appreciation of the 

 evidence which this Table affords of rapid decay, if not of 

 then approaching extermination, one or two explanations 

 will be useful. Let the reader begin by running his eye 

 down the first or Salmon column. He will see that, 

 reckoning by thousands, it commences with 40 and ends 

 with 9, or, taking the most recent piece of evidence, 

 ends with 6 ; in other words, the take of salmon in the 

 Tweed had declined more than five-sixths. Nor does 

 mere decrease of number adequately represent the decay, 

 for the Tweed adult salmon (we speak to a fraction, and 

 by book, although we do not think it necessary to print 

 the book) is, on the average, as compared with a grilse, 

 treble in weight or quantity, and quadruple in value 

 and, as compared with a trout, quintuple in weight and 

 octuple in value. Further, it must be borne in mind 

 that the adult salmon are the produce of an indefinite 

 number of preceding seasons, representing, in short, all 

 of the salmon kind that have not been killed on their 

 first ascent, or have ever been allowed to breed. 

 Naturally, therefore, this column should exhibit much 

 larger numbers than the column for Grilse, which are all 

 the produce of one year ; and quite as naturally, when 

 the number was seen to be not only exceedingly small in 

 itself and in proportion to the number of grilse, but to 

 have diminished five-sixths within fifty years, and more 

 than a half within twenty, and to be still on a hasten- 



