INTRODUCTORY 5 



would follow in a few years. I have watched salmon fisheries 

 long enough to observe that even when the most carefully 

 matured operations are put into practice recovery of a depleted 

 fishery is extremely slow. It is easy to destroy a river ; it is 

 difficult, and costly, and requires a deal of patience to restore 

 it again. 



United action along a definite line of policy is generally 

 necessary on the part of a number of people. Bad seasons will 

 come now and again, and some men are apt to break away. 

 The personal factor is usually a danger. By continuance 

 only will it gradually appear that the bad seasons are not quite 

 so bad as formerly, and that the good seasons are becoming 

 better. The operation is not wholly under human control. 

 Floods and frosts come to destroy spawn. The young salmon's 

 natural enemies in the sea become numerous and aggressive, 

 and the grilse fail. Such difficulties cannot wholly be com- 

 bated. In old days when the stock of salmon was abundant 

 these things did not so much matter. Temporary loss was 

 soon repaired. Now, much effort is required to seize every 

 opportunity of improving various conditions which could 

 formerly be disregarded. The value of salmon is great, 

 competition in the salmon's extinction is keen, and indirect 

 agencies of an adverse kind are far more numerous than 

 formerly. In many parts of the Highlands the conditions are 

 still more or less ideal, and much more complete concentration 

 in the interests of salmon fishing is possible. Yet even in such 

 districts complaints of decline are not infrequent, and recovery 

 is slow in cases where the depleted condition has been allowed 

 to continue for any length of time. The more we learn of the 

 life-history of the salmon, the more we need to realise how 

 seldom many fish spawn. In a period of depression which 

 lasts only for a year or two, there are probably sufficient salmon 

 remaining in the sea of the locality, and which would not 

 naturally have spawned during the period, to replenish the 

 stock. If, let us say, close netting continues at the mouths of 

 the rivers till these fish are also caught, the stock can be sup- 

 ported only by the fish which manage to ascend when the nets 

 are off. Under these circumstances the stock has small chance 

 of recovery till the netting conditions are altered. Further 

 than that, it may happen, that the undue netting of grilse as 



