208 SEASON 1875-76. 



retained for days or weeks before spawning. On the Tay, and also 

 on the Tweed, there is not much difficulty in getting from 250,000 

 to 500,000 salmon ova in a season, but in the Forth and other 

 rivers only a few thousand can be depended upon, and the cost is 

 very heavy. I have known a season's work in collecting salmon 

 ova average over 30s. per 1000, and it rarely, except on the Tay, 

 falls as low as 10s. 



Now, if our salmon rivers are to be stocked, if our salmon 

 rivers are to be as productive, in the future as they have been in 

 the past, ova must be obtained by the million. And this can 

 only be done by retaining the fish till ripe. It seems absurd 

 to have to repeat what to me appear self-evident truisms, but it is 

 necessary ; there are so many who, from the difficulty they find 

 in casting off old notions, are continually dinning fallacies into 

 the public, without the slightest attempt at proof, men who 

 ought to know better, men who have had ample opportunity for 

 ascertaining the truth, and men who, on the foundation of their 

 having had such opportunity, carry a great though fictitious weight 

 with the public. The public has neither the time nor the inclina- 

 tion to compare their statements with the authentic reports, and 

 the old errors still pass as current coin. It is amusing to note that 

 the universal tendency of these men is to ignore the old maxim, 

 Ex nihilo nihilfit. Only listen to them, and no expense is required 

 in the treatment of the ova ; if you will only intrust them with 

 sufficient public money, the rivers are again to teem with fish ! It 

 may be so, but if the hatching and rearing can be done for next 

 to nothing, why should public money be required at all ? In Great 

 Britain nearly all the inland fisheries are private property. I do 

 not say that no assistance should be given by Government. On the 

 contrary, I think that all the assistance necessary should be given ; 

 but I hold that this consists chiefly in collecting and publishing all 

 the reports of work elsewhere. If this was done, private enter- 

 prise would do the rest. This is a work which might be intrusted 

 to the Inspector of Fisheries for England. It cannot be done by 

 private enterprise, as the reports require much weeding ; our 

 consuls should be instructed to inquire into the results of the various 



