202 GROWTH OF THE SALMON-FISHERIES. [CHAP. v. 



iug sketch of a salmon- watcher's tower on the great German 

 river may interest some of my readers who have never been on 

 that beautiful water. 



This unhealthy competition will always continue till 

 some new system be adopted, such as converting each river 

 into a joint -stock property, when the united interests of 

 the proprietors, both upper and lower, would be considered. 

 The trade in fresh salmon, which has culminated in some 

 rivers by the total extermination of the fish, dates from the 

 time of Mr. Dempster's discovery of packing in ice. Half-a- 

 century ago, when we had no railways, and when even fast 

 coaches were too slow for the transmission of sea-produce, the 

 markets were exceedingly local. Then salmon was so very 

 cheap as to be thought of no value as food, and was only 

 looked upon by the population with an eye of good-humoured 

 toleration nobody ever expected to hear of it as a luxury 

 at five shillings a pound weight. No Parisian market existed 

 then for foul fish, and fifty years ago people only poached for 

 amusement. But in the excessive poaching which now goes 

 on during close-time we have a minor cause nearly as produc- 

 tive of evil as the primary and legal one ; for of course it is 

 legal for the tacksman of the station to kill all the fish he can. 

 Add to these causes the extraordinary quantities of infant 

 fish which are annually killed, coupled with that phase of in- 

 sanity which leads to the capture of grilse (salmon that have 

 never spawned), and we obtain a rough idea of the progress 

 of destruction as it goes on in our salmon rivers. Fifty or 

 sixty years ago men caught a salmon or shot a pheasant for 

 mere sport, or at most for the supply of an individual want. 

 Now poaching is a trade or business entered into as a means 

 of securing a weekly or annual income ; it has its complex 



each of them yielding about 40,000 salmon per annum ; and it would 

 not be extravagant to estimate the produce of these fisheries as of the 

 value of .25,000 per annum. 



