THEIR CAPABILITIES. 109 



mourned over by the followers of the net and the 

 angle. 



The rivers of England and Wales exceed in extent 

 those either of Ireland or Scotland, which yield large 

 quantities of salmon, and rentals which to the river- 

 proprietors of England appear enormous. They em- 

 brace a full average proportion of water suited for the 

 propagation of fish, with rapid streams, deep pools, and 

 good gravelly spawning-beds. " I have fished," says 

 Captain Grant, " some of the finest salmon rivers in 

 Europe and America, and, having killed many thou- 

 sands with the fly, I may be supposed to know some- 

 thing of the habits and natural history of this noble fish. 

 My experience convinces me that the river Taw might 

 be made one of the best, if not the best, salmon rivers 

 in England." Another witness depones : " I agree with 

 Captain Grant that the Taw is one of the finest rivers 

 in the kingdom. I almost believe that the Taw and 

 the Torridge, if properly watched, would supply the 

 metropolis with salmon." As to the former abundance 

 of salmon in the TafT, we find a fisherman declaring 

 that, seventy-four years ago, his father and two brothers 

 took 500 salmon out of one pool : " and it was a com- 

 mon custom for me and my brothers to make a slip-knot 

 in a piece of salmon twine, and put it round the tail of 

 a salmon, tie the other end to a bushard, and let the fish 

 swim about the pool till we wanted it." 



The evidence of Mr Thomas Ashworth, a practical 

 pisciculturist of great enterprise and experience, is not 

 less decided as to the natural capability of English 

 rivers for the production of salmon : 



" The Irish Fisheries Commissioners, in their Keport 

 for 1857, state that the value of the salmon caught in 

 Ireland is above 300,000 ; whereas, in England, I have 

 never seen any calculation that made the annual pro- 

 duce amount to 10,000 in value. We have in Eng- 

 land and Wales about one-fourth part more rivers in 

 extent than there is in Ireland, consequently it is rea- 



