44 



of curing-houses,) by such consultations, and by the advice of 

 impartial and generally experienced men, having the prestige 

 of authoritative officers. 



For purposes of stimulating and for superintending the trade, 

 the Scottish fishery board employs two general and forty local 

 inspectors, and has the services of one of her Majesty's cutters, 

 and occasionally of two steam-vessels of the Navy. 



Powers are given by the Act to extend similar advantages to 

 the Irish board, but they have not been exerted ; and, with the 

 exception of some meetings held at the time of the inquiry into 

 the close season of the river fisheries in 1844, few of such meet- 

 ings have taken place. 



THE SALMON FISHERIES. 



The salmon fisheries of Ireland may be said to need a watch- 

 ful solicitude as to every circumstance connected with them. 

 A correct basis in legislating for them can only be formed, and 

 carried out in management, upon scientific acquaintance with the 

 many circumstances bearing upon them, such as the changes of 

 the tide, the effects of currents of rivers, the varied construc- 

 tion, operation, and efficiency of weirs, nets, and other devices 

 for capture. An intimate knowledge is requisite of the natural 

 history and habits of Salmon, and a practical experience of 

 matters affecting their migration, such as the stay they make in 

 estuaries, waiting for floods, the seasons at which they are most 

 abundant ; the facilities for their capture in different parts of 

 rivers ; and the effects of, or means of remedying, artificial or 

 natural obstacles to their ascent to the spawning grounds, 

 those multitudinous fields in which the seed of the future har- 

 vest must be sown. 



The fluctuating, unrestrained nature of this tenant of the 

 waters, free as those of the air yet hidden from the eye of 

 man in its uncertain transit invests this mysterious gift with 

 phases more peculiar than belong to others of iheferce naturce ; 

 the doubtful rights to which appear to be a means designed 

 to try the justice and charity of mankind.* 



Not the property of any until captured it is more than any 



* The circumstances of game differ from those of fish in a ' several' fishery in 

 these respects : game is nowhere public property ; a qualification is required to 

 kill it legally ; when taken by the poacher it is on the exclusive property of an 

 individual, who has perhaps incurred large cost in its food and preservation, 

 and may be in receipt of a lower rent for his land on account of the game fed on 

 it. But any man, who, by greatly increasing his preserve, and failing to pro- 

 vide sufficient protection, places temptation in the way of his poorer neighbours, 

 may be said to incur a moral responsibility. 



4 ' In the state of the law which has existed in Scotland from time immemorial, 

 people have come to know that salmon fishing is a property of peculiar value, 

 and to look upon it as a matter in which the proprietor is entitled to much 

 more stringent regulations for his protection than in the case of ordinary 

 game." Evidence of the Lord Advocate of Scotland, 1849, p. 523. 



