EXTENSION OF THE SALMON TKADK. 



draught is mentioned as having been taken out of the river 

 Thurso, on which occasion the enormous number of two thou- 

 sand five hundred fish were captured. We shall never again 

 see such a haul, unless we give the rivers a rest for a space of 

 five years or so. A jubilee would greatly help to restore the 

 status quo. The discovery of packing in ice by Mr. Dempster 

 led, as was to be expected, to so large a trade in fresh salmon 

 between Scotland and England, that it at once effected a great 

 rise in the price of the fish. High prices had their usual con- 

 sequence with the producer. Every device was put in requi- 

 sition to catch fish for London and the Continent ; arid if this 

 was the case at the beginning, it will be readily understood 

 how rapidly the fish-trade rose in importance as new modes 

 of transit became common. The demand and supply at once 

 assumed such enormous proportions as to tell with fatal effect 

 on the fisheries ; and the high prices led at the same time to 

 such extensive and organised poaching as I have attempted to 

 describe, and which, notwithstanding much police organisation, 

 still exists. 



At one time there were famous salmon in the Thames, and 

 hopes are entertained of fish being successfully cultivated in 

 that river. It is certain that much deleterious matter has 

 been allowed to get into that stream and also into that famous 

 salmon river the Severn ; and in the rivers of Cornwall I 

 believe the hope of ever breeding salmon has been entirely 

 given up in consequence of the poisonous matters which flow 

 from the mines. Many rivers which were known to contain 

 salmon in abundance in the golden age of the fisheries are now 

 tenantless from matter by which they are polluted, such as the 

 refuse of gasworks, paper-mills, etc. 



Another fertile source of harm to the salmon-fisheries are 

 the fixed engines of capture which so many people think it 

 right to use, and which the Lord Advocate's Salmon Bill of 

 1862 left almost in stain quo, except that a little power on 



