APPENDIX. 



I. 



REASONS FOR THE DECREASE OF SALMON. 



THE decrease of salmon is not a matter of yesterday, but 

 may be traced back during a period of more than a 

 quarter of a century, though undoubtedly that decrease has 

 of late years progressed with alarming rapidity. If we 

 take our average of the fishings over a reasonable period, we 

 shall find that the mode of fishing adopted in Scotland and 

 Ireland, but now, happily, for the most part abolished in 

 England, is ruining those fisheries. When I speak of a 

 reasonable period, I do not mean to confine it to any five, 

 ten, or fifteen years, but to take it, as we only fairly can 

 do, by the changes that have taken place in the methods 

 of fishing. 



For example, some twenty years ago, the Irish fisheries, 

 by poaching, &c., were in a very reduced state. Laws 

 were passed, and the rivers put under the management 

 of officers appointed to see to them. In a very few 

 years the fisheries improved wonderfully; but as they 



