112 



THE SALMON. 



asked why he did not get out of bed till dinner-time 

 his Grace had " nae motive." Though the largest pro- 

 prietor in the district intersected by the Tweed and its 

 tributaries, he could not, under the late laws, nor pro- 

 bably even yet, kill a dozen or a score of fish in a season 

 upon his whole property. And here, as at others of the 

 turning-points in the inquiry, we come in sight of a 

 truth which, even in the most recent and improved 

 legislation, has been too much overlooked, that the law 

 should have respect to the widely-varying natural cir- 

 cumstances of rivers. 



Whilst thus pointing out, however, the natural cir- 

 cumstances which helped to save the rental, though not 

 the produce, of the Tay from any very great decrease, 

 we have been working supererogatorily as to the main 

 point at present in hand that, if the salmon-fisheries 

 are now in process of recovery, they had been suffering 

 a long and disastrous decline up till the legislation of 

 these two or three years past. In 1828 (i.e., just before 

 the coming into operation of the disastrous Act which 

 lengthened the fishing season all over Scotland), the 

 rental of the Tay was 14,000 ; in 1836, it had fallen 

 to 10,150 ; and in 1852, 7973 was all that remained. 

 So far, we see that, under the laws and management we 

 are arraigning, the Tay, in spite of some favouring 

 special circumstances, suffered pretty much like its 

 neighbours; and it is only so far that the Tay was 

 managed like its neighbours. About 1852, the Tay 

 proprietors saw that the law was a mistake ; that it was 

 trying to take out of the goose that laid their golden 

 eggs more than was in her ; and they resolved among 



