112 SALMON EIVERS OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 



of the value of her roe as a bait, which is sold at two 

 shillings a-pound, and upwards. 



That salmon should have decreased in England under 

 the operation of such injurious influences is no marvel; 

 and the misfortune is that the temptation to slay them 

 out of season is on the increase. The Parisians have 

 acquired a taste for British salmon ; and whether it be 

 owing to ignorance of our law regarding salmon out of 

 season, or to the talents of the French cooks in disguis- 

 ing unseemliness, it is certain that tons of British sal- 

 mon find their way to the French metropolis in such a 

 state as ought to make them be deemed unfit for food. 

 The price about three francs per pound is so remu- 

 nerative as to tempt dealers in fish to send unseason- 

 able salmon, " on the sly/' in baskets with legs of 

 hares sticking out, in order that the contents may pass 

 for game ; or lyingly labelled " Clothes to be kept 

 dry; " or, u Glass this side to be kept up." 



In fact, this nefarious traffic is so organised as to 

 have a trade nomenclature of its own. O.S.S. stands 

 for old salmon stuff. As there is now a law prohibiting 

 the exportation of fish out of season, this traffic can 

 be put down ; but not easily, as it is carried on secretly 

 in order not to come under the notice of the in- 

 spectors at Billingsgate, from whose interference it 

 has little to apprehend, as their instructions restrict 

 them to seizing food " not wholesome," which with 

 them is not synonymous with out of season ; so that one 

 of them declares that, however large with roe a salmon 

 might be, he would not interfere if it had a healthy 

 appearance. 



This indiscriminate slaughter of salmon, young and 

 old, has been going on in England for nearly six hun- 

 dred years at least, and in defiance of the law. The 

 first Act of Parliament for their protection was, we be- 

 lieve, the 13th of Edward I, 1285. It relates to the 

 Ouse, the Humber, and other rivers, and enacts that 

 " all other waters wherein salmons be taken shall be in 



