of the dwellings of the ancient Britons in the barren hills of 

 Northumberland and other mountainous districts, show that such 

 produce must have formed the chief subsistence where the soil 

 was sterile, as it proved to the American Indians, of whom it is 

 declared by the explorers of the Columbia, the rivers in Oregon, 

 and the sources of the Missouri, that many thousands of those 

 savages lived upon nothing else, even using dried salmon as 

 firing.* 



It should never be forgotten, that highly protected and produc- 

 tive fisheries, sea and inland, would afford to our people a large 

 amount of employment a means of livelihood and wealth. A 

 single salmon grown to its full size is nearly as valuable as a sheep, 

 while no expense is incurred in its care or food.f The philoso- 

 pher Franklin remarks, that " he that puts seed into the ground 

 reaps forty fold, but he that puts a line into the water and 

 draws up a fish pulls out a piece of silver." Another well-known 

 writer observes, that " no species of natural industry is more 

 lucrative than fishing, because it converts the ocean into a 

 mine, and furnishes immense profits without any other expense 

 than what consists in labour." Arthur Young, whose " Tour in 

 Ireland" contains sagacious advice as to the means of improving 

 her condition, considered the improvement of the fisheries of 

 both description next in national importance to that better 

 cultivation of the land which he advocated so fruitlessly. Food 

 and employment are the especial wants of the Irish people, and 

 these resources may, in a large measure, supply both, without 

 much aid of another want capital, for in no other manner can 

 subsistence be obtained by equally economic and rapid means. 



The salmon tribe will reward protection by that natural 

 instinct of returning to the stream in which they are bred. 

 The almost incredible multitude of this fish observed by 

 voyagers in the rivers of the Old and New World, proves the 

 abundance in which the bounty of unabused nature will provide 

 this manna of the waters. 



Spain's daughter ;' and a drunken debauch was jestingly called a marriage to 

 that princess. Fynea Moryson* 



Sherris-sack was imported largely into Ireland, as appears by Strafford r s 

 letters ; and the Act of Henry VIII. for levelling dam-weirs provides a punish- 

 ment for boatmen who used to tap casks of wine in their transit up rivers. 



* In the Columbian river Sir George Simpson found salmon so abundant, 

 that as many as a thousand, some weighing upwards of 40lbs., have been caught 

 in one day with a single basket. ' In a little stream (in New Archangel, 

 Russian America), within a mile of the fort, salmon are so plentiful, that, when, 

 ascending the river, they have been known literally to embarrass the move- 

 ments of a canoe. About 100,000 are salted annually for the use of the fort.' 

 Sir Georye Simpsons Journey round the World, 1847. London. Vol. i., p. 227. 

 See also 'La Perouse's Voyage round the W rld ' 'Lewis and Clarke's Travels 

 up the Missouri/ and Erman's Travels in Siberia.' 



f A salmon ' kelt' of five pounds' weight was marked, among others, by the 

 Duke of Athol's men, on the 25tn February, 1848, and was taken again in April 

 following, and weighed fully twelve pounds Perth Courier, \bth April, 184,9. 



