120 SALMON RIVERS OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 



the law fixes no minimum time, and the dates of open- 

 ing and closing are fixed by the quarter-sessions, with 

 a varying latitude productive of the greatest anomalies 

 and the most serious injury. 



The great breeding season in England and Wales of 

 all fish of the salmon kind is in the months of Novem- 

 ber, December, and January. The same season ex- 

 tends to the rivers of Ireland and Scotland the great 

 rush of the fish to their breeding- waters taking place 

 in the end of September and the beginning of October, 

 and increasing with the advancing season. Diversities 

 in the spawning-time are naturally within so limited a 

 time that this time may be considered as nearly uniform 

 throughout the United Kingdom. The so-called " late- 

 ness " of certain rivers is greatly caused by the period 

 during which they are fished ; and the characteristic 

 of earliness may be lost by any river which has not the 

 benefit of an early close-time. If the early-spawning 

 fish be captured, those permitting the abuse have 

 themselves to thank for the compelled acknowledgment, 

 " Our river has become later than it used to be." This 

 has been proved in Ireland, where the early closing of 

 rivers has produced a corresponding early supply of 

 salmon in certain rivers. The common fishermen in 

 Ireland were at first much opposed to early closing, but 

 now even they acknowledge that the fishing proprietors 

 are right, when, in some instances, they have petitioned 

 the Commissioners to exercise their power of closing 

 the rivers at even an earlier period. Our rivers can 

 never prosper till closed at an early season ; and poach- 

 ing and the sale of unseasonable fish cannot be re- 

 pressed until the possession or sale of salmon after a 

 certain fixed date is declared illegal. 



As to fixed engines on the estuaries and the sea- 

 coast, the Commissioners recommend their total sup- 

 pression, for most cogent reasons ; thus going beyond 

 the recent bill for regulating the Scottish fisheries, which 



