SALMON-FISHERY OF SCOTLAND. 123 



salmon was merely theoretical, picked up in his closet and 

 from his conversations with his stake-net neighbours, and this 

 answer to the question of the Committee is quite enough of 

 itself to convince all the world of it. Who, that knows any- 

 thing of the salmon fishery, would consider size an index of 

 age, except with regard to fish of the same river ? since the 

 salmon of one river will be larger in one year than the salmon 

 of another river will in ten. " A salmon of the Bush," says 

 Mr Little, " will never grow to the size of a Shannon fish, were 

 he to live to any age." In the same way, a young greyhound 

 will grow larger in one year than a terrier would in twenty, 

 were he to live so long, let the quantity or quality of his food, 

 which the Doctor supposes alone make a difference in animals, 

 be what it may. 



The Doctor's ideas of spawning seem to be singular enough. 

 He thinks that in this respect the Tay should be taken as a 

 standard for all rivers : 



"I take the Tay," says he, "as a standard, because it is freed 

 from, anomalies -being the river which pours the greatest quantity 

 of fresh water into the ocean, and it being the river which has pro- 

 duced the greatest quantity of salmon." 



This is undoubtedly a very original idea viz., of having a 

 standard river, to regulate the spawning in other rivers. We 

 only fear it will be somewhat difficult to make the salmon of 

 all the rivers understand the necessity of regulating their breed- 

 ing organs thereby ; though perhaps the united wisdom of the 

 Doctor, Mr Home Drummond, and Mr Kennedy, may contrive, 

 with the aid of an Act of Parliament and new stake-net or other 

 ingenious machinery, some means of effecting it, and of altering 

 the natural constitution of the salmon race. 



The Committee farther ask the Doctor, " whether an obvious 

 diminution must not take place in those rivers where there are 

 stake-nets in the estuaries ? " Here the interest of the Doctor's 

 dear stake-net friends was brought directly to the point, and he 

 accordingly replies : 



" If stake-nets catch salmon advancing directly to the rivers, they 

 must occasion a corresponding diminution in the river fisheries j but 

 such fish arc not caught in stake-nets." 



