246 HIGHLAND SPORT 



as the Foe lives, so long are we destined, year by year, to 

 pay him a tribute of thousands and thousands of salmon lives. 



" To the inevitable we are prepared to submit with the best 

 grace we can, and I have been led into bubbling forth this 

 long rigmarole, not from any wish to plead on behalf of our 

 race for a wholly unmolested life, but solely with a view to 

 urge the Foe to be merciful and not pursue us to total ex- 

 termination. Surely since they set such store by us, it must 

 be for their own interests to preserve us, and to this end on 

 every river they should associate together to try to do 

 away with all nets plying in fresh water, while insisting 

 that a longer weekly close lime be given to us, while as for 

 the stake nets in the sea, at least every other one should be 

 abolished. 



" And now, if you will mention all these matters to your 

 Foe friends, I shall feel I have not sent up all these air bubbles 

 for nothing. The garrulity of old age must be my excuse, and 

 so in the hopes of yet living to reach the weight of three-score 

 pounds and ten, which is about the limit of salmon growth, and 

 trusting when that time arrives I may not find myself fastened 

 to you by any devilish insect, for by your face I can see you 

 are longing for such an event, I wish you, sir, a polite good- 

 bye." 



To make a start, however, with this chapter, already so 

 long delayed by the narration of the memoirs of my loquacious 

 friend, the fifty-four-pounder. 



In 1836, Yarrell wrote in his Book of Fishes, "In no 

 country in proportion to its size are salmon fisheries so exten- 

 sive or so valuable as in the United Kingdom." 



Now that was penned nearly fifty years ago, and since then 

 the numbers of the nets have enormously increased, although 

 the actual fishing grounds have remained the same, while the 

 only set-off against the amplification and the improved methods 

 of working has been the opening up of fresh breeding grounds 

 and the establishment of various fish hatcheries, and, as will be 



