50 



be qiiite as reasonable to suppose that the race of the 

 Herring or the Cod is in danger, in consequence of the 

 multitudes which are taken, as to believe that any per- 

 ceptible diminution of the Salmon species, would arise 

 from the success of the fishery. Everyone knows that 

 the herring and the white fish exist in myriads past num- 

 ))er ;- that they compose the food of the larger marine 

 animals ; and that although man vindicates his right to 

 a share, yet all that he obtains, or indeed all that he could 

 consume, bears no sensible proportion to what are destroy- 

 ed within the ocean itself. And it is just the same with the 

 Salmon. The Salmon is not destined for the food of man 

 alone ;- there are hordes of voracious animals in the ocean 

 which continually prey upon it, and of which it composes 

 the principal food. Wherever Salmon are to be found, 

 there are these animals^also. At some stations, porpoises 

 may be seen, in vast numbers, rolling along with the tide, 

 in pursuit of their prey ; while seals, again, abound on 

 every rock and sand-bank, as well as in the open sea, and 

 sometimes they even find their way into the nets, and de- 

 liberately, in presence of the fishers, destroy the fish. Who, 

 will venture to say what are the limits to the destruction 

 effected by these animals ? or, in how many such ways, 

 unknown to man, the Salmon is destroyed* ? 



* In the Tay case, some of the witnesses incidentally men- 

 tioned the destruction of salmon by porpoises and seals. An- 

 drew Crichton, who had been a fisher for twenty years, * 4 de- 

 " pones, That there are great numbers of porpoises in the Tay, 

 " and the deponent has seen above A THOUSAND AT ONE TIME : 

 " That he has seen a great number as high up as Balmerino : 

 " That these porpoises are very destructive to salmon, and it is 

 " in quest of them that the porpoises go so far up the Tay : That 



