been either destroyed by the advances of civilization, or her 

 rivers are in general sluggish and muddy, or their course im- 

 peded by numberless artificial obstructions. Those of Scotland, 

 with, on the other hand, less extent of natural advantages, than 

 those of this island, having fallen mostly into the possession of 

 private individuals, and, being uninjured by many causes that 

 militate against the latter, have been well legislated for and 

 protected, and they are consequently of great value. 



It must be impracticable to estimate with accuracy the amount 

 of increase of which our salmon fisheries are capable, supposing 

 that the best means were employed to raise them to their 

 maximum ; but from the evidence adduced of success hitherto 

 obtained it is not presuming too far to assert, that their pre- 

 sent returns might be increased from four to tenfold.* 



There can be no doubt but that in remote times the rivers 

 of these islands supplied a principal article of food to their rude 

 inhabitants before the use of civilized machinery for capture, 

 and whilst the population was thin and scattered.! The traces 



are extreme. In his Salmonia, or, Days of Fly-fishing,' he has dispelled the error 

 as to the barbarity of this sport, by proving the slight pain that cold-blooded 

 animals suffer, and that their horny mouths are insusceptible of it. Capricious 

 objectors to its ' cruelty' often resemble the Indian Brahmins, who, while they 

 hire beggars for vermin to feed upon, neglect the vast aggregate of human 

 misery around them. His work may be bound up with The Complete Angler,' 

 and is an eloquent tribute to the simplest and most attainable of rural sports. 



* ' We believe it will be admitted, that the salmon fisheries, as an important 

 portion of the industrial resources of this country, were, previous to the passing 

 of the present fishery laws in 1842, in a comparatively very neglected state, and 

 that they never did, up to that time, nor do they even now, as a whole, yield 

 more than a small proportionate part of that value of which they are capable, 

 under a proper system.' Messrs. Mulvany and Barry s Report, 1846. ' These 

 fisheries are of very considerable and increasing public importance, but admit 

 of improvement to an extent far surpassing their present amount of production.' 

 Third Report of the Commissioners, 1845. 



t In all the traditions of the ancient Irish, a plenitude of fish in the invers, or 

 estuaries, of the land was believed to be the result of the righteousness of the 

 reigning monarch, and the cursing of a river by one of their primitive saints was 

 considered a great calamity. The warrior, Finn Mac Cool, was killed by a fisher- 

 man of the Boyne with his gaff, and his father-in-law, the monarch Cormac 

 Mac Art was choked by the bone of a salmon ! The early ' Lives' of St. Patrick 

 show, that he found the Pagan Irish fishing the rivers in every part of the island. 

 A host of genuine authorities could be gathered to prove that the ancient Irish 

 regarded the fertility of a river as a great blessing. A sufficient investigation 

 of Irish manuscripts, such as the Brehon laws, relating to Mur Bhreatha, or sea 

 decisions, would probably show the general right of each Gaelic tribe to fish in 

 the rivers of their clan Communication from John O' Donovan, Esq. 



It is stated in a tract on the O'Sullivan family, preserved in the library of 

 the Royal Irish Academy, that MacFineen Duff, of Ardee, received 300 per 

 annum from the Spaniards for liberty to fish in the river of Kenmare, and that 

 the head of this sept had several deeds signed and sealed by his ancestors in 

 connexion with the said fishery. The value of the northern fisheries to our 

 export trade alone in former times may be imagined from the soubriquet of 

 O'Donnell, chief of Tyrcounel (now Donegal), 1 who was called in Spain 'The 

 King of Fish,' from the quantity imported from his territory by the Spaniards 

 in exchange for wine. 



The Irish returned the compliment by styling Spanish wine ' the king of 



B 2 



