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600 fish at a haul. The fishery is rented from the Duke by Mr. Foley, 

 at a rental, we were informed, of 700 per annum. The fish, being 

 property, are consequently preserved ; and the water is not free to the 

 angler; although he may, and we believe often does, obtain the privi- 

 lege to fish there from the courtesy of the renter. 



" From all we have heard and seen, we consider there is no spot in 

 Ireland that offers to the angler so many temptations ; the scenery is 

 everywhere delicious; the banks that immediately skirt the river are 

 not inconveniently crowded with trees ; the accommodation at the inn 

 is unexceptionable the charges small, the rooms comfortable, and the 

 servants attentive to a degree; above all, the river is thronged with 

 salmon, and abounds with the finest trout. It is no exaggeration to 

 say that we saw the salmon leaping in hundreds. Circumstances pre- 

 vented our being able to throw a fly until the evening of the day after 

 our arrival; and as our stay was brief, we had but a couple of hours 

 to devote to the sport a sacrifice of enjoyment to duty which all 

 brethren of the angle will understand and appreciate. Our recompense 

 was, therefore, but a brace of fish comparatively small in size, for the 

 largest weighed but ten pounds and a quarter. If the river in the 

 neighbourhood of Lismore were free, we doubt if there be any place 

 in the United Kingdom that would promise so ample a recompense to 

 the votaries of the gentle craft; and we presume to hint that so great 

 would be the consequent influx of visitors to his beautiful town, that a 

 far greater revenue would arise to the Duke than that which he derives 

 from the rental of the weir." From Mr. and Mrs. Hall's " Ireland." 



SPENT FISH. The law very properly requires that all Salmon and 

 Trout that have recently spawned shall, when they are caught, be 

 returned immediately to the water without injury, and makes the 

 possessor of fish in that condition liable to a penalty. Fishermen 

 have given it as their opinion, that ' spents, if they were as delicate as 

 egg shells' when taken in nets, can be so returned without being in 

 any degree injured. It is of consequence that the Close Season should 

 be so regulated as to avoid, as far as possible, that any spent fish 

 should be liable to be taken, or otherwise it may be said that the law 

 in one point holds out an inducement to its violation in another. 



One of the witnesses before -the Select Committee of 1824, who at 

 that time paid a rent for fishings on the Tweed to the amount of 

 5,000 a-year, mentioned that Salmon were in a very unwholesome 

 state some days previous to, and a month after spawning, and that he 

 had heard of an instance of a whole family dying in consequence of 

 eating salmon in that state. 



It was formerly the practice in Scotland to preserve, or ' kipper,' 

 unseasonable fish. Isaac Walton uses the word ' kipper' as expressive 

 of fish in that condition. 



DIFFERENCE OF VALUE OF SALMON. Mr. James Bell, a renter of 

 fisheries in the Tay and Tweed to the amount of 9,200 a-year, stated 

 in evidence before the Select Committee of 1824, that salmon taken in 

 the stake-nets were often inferior to those taken by net and coble, 

 because, unless removed before low tide, the water receded, and left 

 the fish floundering about, heated, and dying. 



Mr. J. Crawford, who has been long engaged in the Waterford 

 salmon trade, stated before the Select Committee of 1849, that as good 



