200 



even in clear places not above six inches deep. Many fish as long as 

 my arm were still struggling here up against the strength of the cur- 

 rent; others appeared so fatigued that they staid under our horses' 

 hoofs, if we rode into the water, and countless numbers were already 

 dead, knocked to pieces against the stones. Then too I saw for the 

 first time, in a river of Kamschatka, an astonishing multitude of this 

 year's young. They were some a finger long, some of double that size, 

 and remained in the quiet deep pools along the banks of the rivulet, 

 behind roots or other accidental obstructions. Here, accordingly, it 

 appeared as if nothing but the desire of suitable spawning-places drove 

 the salmon every year from the sea to the vicinity of the springs, 

 though this view of the matter still leaves the remarkable phenomenon 

 in many respects unexplained; for it is hard to discover any great 

 advantages which the strong and violent rivulet possesses over the 

 lower course of the stream. The more constant temperature of the 

 mountain waters, hardly amounting, nevertheless, to 3 Reaumur, 

 37 '75 Fahrenheit, and the later entrance of the frost into them, do not 

 appear to hold out any great advantages to fish, which are already 

 fully formed in the warm season, and must renounce the far more 

 abundant food and the softer bottom which they would be sure to find 

 everywhere lower down in the same river. But besides, the exclusive, 

 or even general spawning, in spring-waters seems inseparable from a 

 great if not unexampled destruction of living germs. In fact, it is 

 quite evident that every year much more than half of the new genera- 

 tion is lost, if we are to suppose that the old fish which we saw dead 

 in the middle part of the river's course, deferred depositing their roe 

 till the end of their intended migration, and so become converted, 

 themselves and their posterity, into food for bears and dogs." 



XXII. 



SEA FISHERIES. Having been lately favoured with communications 

 from a gentleman who is conspicuous for promoting a successful prose- 

 cution of the Deep-Sea fishing trade, the following memoranda from 

 them are subjoined: 



The writer premises by observing that most persons appear under 

 the impression that Fishing is a very simple art readily acquired by 

 any person even the most ignorant, and that it consists in merely 

 casting a line or a net into the water, and bringing the produce to 

 land. But it is actually as diverse in its operations, and requires as 

 great a variety of implements and skill in using them, as the numerous 

 handicrafts connected with the manufacture of wood work. In conse- 

 quence of this erroneous idea, our poor peasantry are not unfrequently 

 upbraided with idleness and laziness, because they do not gather up 

 the wealth that abounds on our shores. Adam Smith likewise tells us, 

 that from time immemorial fishermen have been poor and improvident ; 

 and so doubtless they will continue to be, wherever this branch of in- 

 dustry is not pursued as a regular trade, conducted on sound and cor- 

 rect principles. Sea fishing, to be profitable, must be based on this 

 fundamental rule, as the foundation stone. It is owing to the non-adhe- 

 rence to this rule, that the large sums granted by Government during 



