NATURAL HISTORY 25 



salmon requires in order to increase and multiply to 

 any reasonable extent is to be left with healthy 

 surroundings and a longer respite from persecution. 

 No reasonable man desires that they should be 

 allowed to multiply to such numbers as swarm in 

 some rivers in Newfoundland — too great really either 

 for sport or food — where the water is thick with fish, 

 and anyone can get as many as he wishes with gaff or 

 spear ; while the banks are foetid with decaying corpses, 

 and bears and other animals are sated with the spoil. 

 But the number of salmon in British and Irish rivers 

 have diminished, are diminishing, and ought to be 

 increased. My own experience and communications 

 from numerous reliable sources assure me of this 

 fact. It puts me out of patience to see the wasteful 

 and wanton destruction of a source of national wealth 

 and enjoyment which could so easily be preserved by 

 more reasonable treatment. Here is a creature which 

 does absolutely no damage to man — by consuming 

 his food or destroying his crops — which grows from 

 ounces to pounds in a few months, and provides 

 wholesome food, wealth, or recreation to thousands. 

 All it asks is fair and sensible treatment. If it 

 resents the unmeasured and unrestrained pollution of 

 our rivers, the interest of the tenants of the banks 

 are in this respect absolutely identical with those of 



