206 PRESERVATION OF SALMON. 



fish, and bag them by night. This is moonshine 

 with a vengeance ! If a river be properly watched 

 by day, as it should be, such characters, always 

 well-known in a neighbourhood, are easily sent to 

 the " right-about." But as to angling by the better 

 class (mere angling for sport)what is the extent of 

 its mischief? Not one out of twenty fish, over 

 which our flies pass, is inclined to rise to them. 

 And suppose there are six miles of river, and 

 you give to each angler half a mile, and he takes 

 six fish per week, which is a large average of 

 sport for any river in the United Kingdom, here 

 are seventy-two fish taken altogether by twelve 

 men in the week. Now, in the same quantity of 

 river, compare this with netting. Take the Foyle, 

 we will say, in Ireland ; we find that is fished for 

 six months, or one hundred and fifty-six days, 

 Sundays excluded, and, according to their 

 returns, the proprietors took 55,906 salmon 

 during A.D. 1835, averaging 358 per day, or 

 2,148 per week! What is seventy-two com- 

 pared to 2,148 ? Anglers, perhaps, are the only 

 body of men who are interested now-a-days in 

 protecting the upper parts of rivers ! This river 

 in particular, I know to be solely protected by 

 them : the upper part being open to anglers 

 subscribing for their amusement, and a keeper 

 provided solely to preserve for their sport. Each 

 real angler therefore in the neighbourhood feels a 



