1 74 A YEAE OF LIBERTY ; OR, 



fence time. He observed, " The direct loss to the lessees was 

 considerable, from the numbers which escaped during the rim of the 

 grilse, and that this loss was by no means compensated by the 

 increased stock presumed to result from the increased number of 

 mother fish." As nearly as I remember, the following was his line 

 of argument. Assuming the Moy to have as large a head of 

 breeding fish as the spawning grounds could accommodate, he con- 

 ceived that every additional salmon which the present law allows 

 to pass the weirs, instead of adding to the amount of fry, actually 

 diminished it. 



" Suppose," said he, " a spawning bed capable of accommodating 

 twenty pairs of working fish, the trenches made, the ova laid down, 

 and the gravel replaced. Now, if others arrive subsequently and 

 commence their labours, the previously deposited ova is rooted up 

 and lost, and the gravel rendered so loose as to be unfit to secure that 

 which was last buried. Thus the first deposit is lost, and the second 

 rendered so insecure as to be carried away almost to a certainty by 

 the winter floods ; ergo, a surplus stock produces less smolts than a 

 smaller one." 



This, to say the least, is plausible ; but then it rests on the 

 hypothesis of an over stock. Grant this, and the position is 

 unanswerable ; but oppose it, and how stands the argument ? 



Few, I presume, will deny that seventy or eighty years ago the 

 supply in our rivers was far greater than at present. The means of 

 taking them were at that time inferior to those now employed, and 

 the inducement to capture them was not a fourth of what it is in our 

 day ; consequently, with a more prolific stock, and inferior methods 

 of stopping them, larger numbers must have made their way to the 

 head waters than can possibly do so now. This increased amount of 

 mother fish hatched a greater number of fry than are found at 

 present, as may be assumed from the larger number of adults then 

 secured ; yet they were reared from the same beds, which are 

 declared unequal to the support of decreased numbers. But even 

 granting our friend's view to be correct as regards one river, the 

 number of streams with a surplus population is at this time very, 



