ME. ASHWORTH'S UNDERTAKINGS. 257 



a lofty, impassable fall; consequently, although Lough 

 Comb abounded in salmon, none had ever been seen 

 in Lough Mask. Moreover, the many gravelly tribu- 

 taries which salmon love to spawn in rather discharged 

 themselves into the upper part of Lough Mask, which 

 again receives the waters of one or two smaller lakes than 

 Lough Corrib ; and as the capabilities of production of a 

 fishery are bounded by the area of its spawning-beds, this 

 proved a serious check to the further increase of produc- 

 tiveness in the fishery. Undaunted by difficulties, how- 

 ever, Mr. Ashworth set to work, ameliorated the stream, 

 put salmon-stairs to the impassable fall, and stocked the 

 head waters of Lough Mask with half-a-niillion of salmon 

 ova. These operations have been so lately completed, 

 that we hardly know as yet what measure of success will 

 attend them ; but I see no reason for doubting their 

 success, and if so, a capable area of about thirty square 

 miles will be added to Mr. Ashworth's already valuable 

 fishery, and in a few years' time the fishery will realize 

 a handsome fortune. This shows what can be done by 

 pisciculture, in its broad sense, and a little practical 

 common sense combined. 



