122 THE SALMON. 



abstract of a return regarding the fisheries of two pro- 

 prietors, generally reckoned as possessing one-half of the 

 entire fisheries of the tideway, show the result : 

 TEN YEARS (1825-34) before NAVIGATION ACT. 



Salmon. Grilse. 



Greatest year, . ., 9,731 18,071 



Smallest year, . . 3,920 8,622 



Total of the ten years, . 67,151 1 28, 1 88 



Annual average, . . 6,715 12,818 



TEN YEARS (1836-45) after NAVIGATION ACT. 



Salmon. Grilse. 



Greatest year, . . 12,123 24,603 



Smallest year, . . 4,704 8,070 



Total of the ten years, . 85,899 133,346 



Annual average, . . 8,589 13,335 



So far so well. But take the fishings just next above 

 those ; which, from being beyond the tideway, and above 

 Perth Bridge, did not partake in the benefits of the 

 Navigation Act. In the same period during which the 

 two tideway fisheries, by their improved working, had 

 increased as the Table shows, their neighbours next 

 above had suffered a decrease of nearly fifty per cent. ! 

 This shows what increased efficiency in the use of the 

 net-and-coble can do, and indicates what it actually did, 

 without aid from the fixed nets, in decreasing the num- 

 ber of fish previously permitted to ascend and breed. 



In coming to the second species of over-fishing,- 

 fishing by fixed or standing-nets, we come to the chief 

 culprit ; and have got evidence against him both curious 

 and conclusive. 



Fishing by stake and bag nets (the former being a 

 species of net hung on stakes driven into the beach, with 

 the cells or traps a little beyond low water, and the 



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