168 



iish, or in the more important consideration of navigation, is undoubt- 

 edly a great evil, and its injurious effects ought to be lessened as far as 

 the law will permit. The lessee only pays 300 per annum rent at 

 present, the value of the weir having been greatly reduced by the 

 introduction of stake nets into the estuary. It might be worth while, 

 on the part of the owners of those nets, and of the proprietors in the 

 interior, to join in purchasing the lease and the weir together, supposing 

 that the owners would consent to part with them. 



The Great Lax weir at Limerick extends entirely across the river, 

 in a diagonal direction; the breadth of the stream there is 1,141 feet. 



In this great artificial obstruction there is but one opening, of not 

 quite twenty-one feet, but the weir does not reach quite to the banks 

 by a few feet on each side. It is built, of stones, bound together by 

 upright posts of timber. The top of the weir is much higher than the 

 surface of the water. This gap is the only opening for boats, and in 

 summer the water is too shallow to admit a keel-boat drawing three or 

 four inches. The gap bears a proportion of only one fifty-fourth part 

 to the width of the river at that part. 



It is said that the tenant some years since made 2,500 by the 

 profits of this weir. Evidence of Sir R. De Burgho, 1849. 



VII. 



From "An Account of Ireland, Statistical and Political/' by 

 Edward Wakefield, 2 vols., 4to, 1812. 



" The SALMON is mentioned by Pliny; but it seems not to have been 

 known to the Greeks, for it has never yet been found in the Mediter- 

 ranean, and those people had very little intercourse with the northern 

 countries where it abounds. In Europe, Kamtschatka, Greenland, 

 Newfoundland, and in the northern parts of America, it is plentiful. 

 Notwithstanding it is a sea fish, it proceeds up rivers to deposit its 

 spawn in some favourable place; and it is remarked, that when it has 

 once made a choice, it returns to the same spot again, like the swallow 

 to the building where she before had constructed her nest. The latter 

 circumstance has been long ascertained, by marking the bird ; and the 

 former was proved in the following manner by the French naturalist, 

 De la Landes having purchased from the fishermen of Chateaulin, a 

 town in Lower Brittany, where about 2,000 Salmon are caught every 

 year, a dozen of these fish, he fixed copper rings round their tails, and 

 set them at liberty. The fishermen assured him afterwards, that the 

 next year they caught at one time five of those marked Salmon, 

 another time three, and a third time the same number. In spring, as 

 soon as the ice begins to break, the Salmon seek the fresh water; and 

 it is observed, that they are found in much greater numbers in those 

 rivers which discharge themselves into the sea by a narrow mouth, 

 than in those which spread to a considerable width. They gene- 

 rally enter the rivers in spring, taking the tide and the wind, 

 which the fishermen call the Salmon wind. In the warmer parts of 

 Europe this ascent takes place in February and March; but in the 

 colder, in April and May. They are fond of water which flows with 



