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its authority, all the upper part of the Shannon was rendered destitute 

 of fish, and the proprietors of land abutting upon the river were 

 deprived of the benefit of the fishery, to which they must have an 

 original right. The bill now before the Committee was intended to 

 restore in some degree the benefit of the fishery to the interior country, 

 without injuring the city of Limerick; for though at their weirs there 

 were often caught from six hundred to one thousand fish per day, for 

 the whole upper part of the river, it was only desired that a small 

 passage should be opened for a few hours once a week, that the mother 

 fish might go up to spawn. 



" The bill was lost, but a few years afterwards another was brought 

 in, and passed ; which provided that in every weir, in every river, and 

 in the deepest part of such river, there should be a passage twenty-one 

 feet wide, called the king's gap, left always open (23 & 24 Geo. III., 

 c. 40, s. 11). This statute has been, however, in most cases disregarded 

 by the weir-owners. The Limerick Corporation for a long time set it at 

 defiance, till at length legal proceedings were taken against them ; and 

 even when they were obliged to leave the gap open, they endeavoured 

 to defeat the object of it, by putting several white substances in it, and 

 particularly one in the form of a crocodile, to frighten the fish from 

 passing up (see Report of 1825, passim). 



"In general, throughout the entire kingdom, wherever the gap is 

 left, various expedients are resorted to for the purpose of rendering it 

 inefficacious; so that the proprietors of the fresh water fisheries are 

 almost as completely defrauded of their fishings as if that statute had 

 never been passed. But even supposing that the weir-owners fairly 

 complied with it, see what a fraction of their rights they leave to the 

 private proprietors twenty-one feet out of an average breadth probably 

 of a quarter of a mile. 



"Looking at all these circumstances can we wonder that the whole 

 population should be hostile to such a system 1 



Everybody, not directly interested in it, lifts his hand against it. The 

 people refuse to obey what they are told is the law, and the magistrates, 

 who are not interested, refuse to enforce it. 



But for this weir, the river would be navigable some distance above it, 

 the tide rising to a height of twelve feet at each side of it. It is made 

 of stone piers extending across the river like the piers of a bridge, and 

 lath-work stretched across securely from pier to pier at the western 

 side, or that on which the Salmon come from the sea. To every alter- 

 nate pair of piers there is lath-work affixed at the eastern side also, so 

 as to enclose a complete chamber. There is an aperture for the Salmon 

 to get in, and of course none to get out. Between the other piers there 

 is no passage for them, so that when they push their snouts against 

 the lath-work they are obliged to grope their way aside till they get 

 into these very snug 'chambers.' 



" Thus this weir stands continually, from morning till night, and 

 night till morning during the fishing season." Dublin Review, Novem- 

 ber, 1841. 



The writer forgot to state that the prescriptive title to this weir is 

 many hundred years old. The legal title of the Corporation of 

 Limerick to it, whether by right of patent, or of long enjoyment is not 

 questioned, but the existence of the obstruction, both to a free run of 



