152 THE SALMON. 



sport. The number of fish sufficient for sport, compared 

 with what is necessary for profit, is utterly insignificant ; 

 and the upper or sporting proprietors were and are con- 

 tent to pay very high for what is of comparatively trifling 

 value to the lower or commercial interests. In illustra- 

 tion of this last statement, we may mention that it has 

 been shown, from Tweed statistics, that, at least in some 

 years, the average cost of each salmon to the renters of 

 angling waters on that river is about 3 in rent alone, 

 while the average of rent paid by each fish captured in 

 the netting districts is only one shilling ; so that it may 

 be said that for every shilling's worth which the lower 

 proprietors allow to pass, they give the upper proprietors 

 3 worth of interest in protecting the breed. 



It should also be more popularly known than it is, 

 that for the most part it is fish in good or fair condition 

 that are taken by the rod and artificial fly, even at the late 

 periods of the year. It is an entire mistake to think that 

 fish in the act of spawning can be killed by the rod as 

 they can be by the net and leister. A fish on its redd 

 will not take a lure, and lies in water where every angler 

 knows it would be hopeless to cast a line. The fish taken 

 by the rod in late seasons are taken in the same haunts, 

 and in much the same condition, as those killed by the 

 rod in the same reaches of the river during summer ; that 

 is, waiting and resting, in streams and deeps, on their 

 way to the spawning-beds. So soon as they lie down to 

 spawn, the angler's chances end, and the poacher's cer- 

 tainties begin. 



This rule or law of nature extends far beyond fish 

 actually on the spawning-bed : just in proportion as a 



