SALMON-FISHERY OF SCOTLAND. 19 



been limited to fishing on the coasts, or at the mouths of great 

 rivers, though they do not absolutely deny that salmon return 

 to their native rivers, do not admit the fact, because they are 

 ignorant of it. These men, finding salmon of different shapes 

 in their nets, suppose it is the fish of different rivers. They do 

 not reflect that there could be no different breeds belonging to 

 different rivers, if salmon entered all rivers by chance : the 

 inconsistency never struck their minds. These fish were, 

 however, the salmon of the different branches of the same river, 

 caught by them, at or near its mouth ; all which would proceed 

 up the common channel, and strike off, each into its own 

 branch, or natal stream, as it reached it. The upper fishers, or 

 the inhabitants in the vicinity, could point out with ease the 

 fish of each branch ; they could sort them as a shepherd would 

 different breeds of sheep ; but the sea fishers, whose sole object 

 is to catch all they can, never give themselves the trouble of 

 investigating such matters. It would be absurd, however, to 

 consider ignorance of a fact as proof of its non-existence, in the 

 face of positive proof to the contrary. 



All intelligent salmon-fishers, indeed, who have had the 

 means of knowledge on the subject, fully acknowledge the fact. 

 Even Mr Little, the celebrated stake-net fisher, admits it. He 

 states, in the Committee, 



" I believe every river has a peculiar breed of fish, both as to 

 salmon and grilse. We have three fishing rivers that fall into one 

 bay in Ireland, the Bush, the Bann, and the Foyle ; and we can 

 easily distinguish the salmon of the different rivers when we take 

 them. The salmon of the Bush is a long-bodied round fish, nearly 

 as thick at the head as it is at the middle. The salmon that we kill 

 at the Bann is what I call a very neat-made fish, very broad at the 

 shoulder, and the back-fiii tapering away towards the tail, and quite 

 a different shaped fish from the Bush fish. In the Foyle we get few 

 salmon but grilses. The Shannon fish are very large, few of them 

 under twenty pounds, and many of them thirty and forty pounds and 

 upwards. The salmon that are bred in the Bush never get larger 

 than nine or ten pounds. A large salmon never will come from a 

 small breed : a Bush salmon would never grow to the size of a Shan- 

 non fish, though he were to live to any age." 



