26 THE SALMON 



the inhabitants of the water. It cannot be said that 

 a fish which manages to survive the passage through 

 the mouth of the Tyne at Newcastle is unreasonably 

 exacting in its requirements. Yet one sees from 

 time to time such paragraphs in the newspapers as 

 I quote with shame from the Scotsman of August 22, 

 1897. 



There was a wholesale destruction of salmon in 

 the river Ribble last week. Large numbers of fish 

 were seen floating down the stream dead, and eight- 

 een were taken out dead from one pool. These fish 

 had all been poisoned by foul refuse which had been 

 flushed into the river by the heavy rain.' This is not 

 an isolated instance, but the record of an occurrence 

 only too frequent. Rivers like the Teviot and some 

 of the Wicklow streams pursue their rocky course 

 absolutely void of their former denizens, some of 

 them so poisoned that no living fish can exist in their 

 polluted waters. The legislature has done something 

 to check this wanton waste ; perhaps it might do 

 more, but there is a danger in restrictions in advance 

 of local opinion, and what is certainly more required 

 than new Acts of Parliament is the intelligent and 

 vigilant enforcement of existing laws by the local 

 authorities. Large powers have been recently con- 

 ferred upon various areas. County, district, and 



