NATURAL HISTORY 27 



parish councils arc now elected by a democratic 

 popular vote. It rests with those representative 

 bodies to justify their existence by a prompt and 

 resolute interference with the selfishness of such 

 individuals and corporations as carelessly pursue 

 their trades and occupations with injury and destruc- 

 tion to the health and wealth of their neighbours. 

 In some cases the mischief has already been done 

 beyond repair, but it is the plain duty of every 

 Englishman to see that this wanton destruction goes 

 no further. But it is not enough to provide the 

 salmon with a suitable environment. The breeding 

 stock must be protected from excessive and indis- 

 criminate destruction. Poaching on the spawning 

 beds, and the massacre of immature fish, do some 

 mischief, but I have no hesitation in stigmatising the 

 greed of the net fisher, and the defective laws under 

 which he plies his trade, as the greatest causes of the 

 diminution of salmon in British waters. Our ancestors 

 no doubt used the prototypes of the same engines, with 

 little care for times and seasons, and also indulged in 

 cruives, traps and weirs of a very destructive character ; 

 but side by side with the rise in the value of salmon 

 as a saleable commodity, and the greatly increased 

 facilities for its transport by rail and steam, and its 

 preservation by ice and canning, the human enemies 



