34 



in the upper part of most rivers can seldom, and in some places 

 never, get a fish during the open season. The natural result in 

 such cases will invariably be found to be, (as can be shown in 

 many instances,) as follows : The lower proprietor catches 

 every fish he can, uses every exertion to prevent a fish passing 

 above him ; the upper proprietor allows the destruction of the 

 breeding fish, and in a few years, if the practice be continued, 

 the fish become less in size and quantity, almost to annihilation 

 of the fishery. 



* It is peculiarly the interest of the lower proprietor and the 

 coast fishers to join in the protection of the breeding fish, and 

 to concede to the upper proprietor some interest in the fishery, 

 to obtain his protection for them ; and, as a part of the means 

 of accomplishing so necessary an object* it would appear to be 

 desirable that a power to form associations, and to assess all 

 persons benefited for the necessary expenses of the protection 

 of the breeding fish, should be given, and perhaps that pro- 

 visions to this effect should be added to the Bill.' 



The Bill had, therefore, to be framed so as to permit such 

 a quantity of fish to ascend as would promote the double ob- 

 ject, of making the upper proprietors sharers to such an extent 

 in the fishery during the open season as should prove a stimulus 

 to them to protect, and of leaving enough early spawning fish 

 for breeding purposes ; and this, coupled with the protection 

 of the fry, it was expected would greatly increase the produce 

 of each river. 



But while thus augmenting the powers of capture, the provi- 

 sions for protection and improvement remained in practice in- 

 operative. Every instrument for destruction and capture, from 

 the seven-pronged spear to the weir of half a mile in length (the 

 first the most fatal of the two), has been brought into almost 

 unremitted action, and the hapless salmon that, in its upward 

 course, had escaped the cross-fire of twenty weirs,* and run 



* NUMBER OF WEIRS. There are one hundred and twenty rivers in Ireland 

 frequented by salmon, of which there are fishing weirs thrown entirely across 

 thirty-seven, and there are stake- weirs in eleven. Report of Select Com. 1849. 



There are no less than thirty-six weirs on the Barrow and Nore ; and twenty- 

 five from Waterford to the sea, Evidence, pp. 510, 446. Twenty-two illegal 

 weirs were reported on the Suir in March, 1849 Appendix, p. 92. 



One of those on the Barrow, is of as old a date as 1246, when the Earl of 

 Norfolk was seised of the ' (/urges de Corkery, ' (query, Con-cora, the ancient 

 head-weir' noticed in the act of 1842 ?) near Ross Inquis. Turr. London. 



In 1307 the Earl was found seised of a ' gurges' at Kilscallan, ad anguill' 

 capiendum,' (an eel weir.) 



There were twenty-three stake-net weirs in fishing order on the Blackwater 

 last year. The estuary of the Shannon is so thickly studded with their stakes, 

 that it is said to represent the appearance of a hop-garden in Kent. The mul- 

 titude of stake-weirs erected since the enactment of 5 & 6 Victoria has, 

 in many instances, occasioned great discontent among the old class of fisher- 

 men, who declare, that by that Act ' the property in fisheries was taken from 

 them, and handed over to the landlords.' Evidence, 1849, pp. 401, 509. 



