CHAP. XL] VALUE OF SALMON NOW. 477 



shape of a barrel of pickled salmon, for winter use. At that 

 time, as I have already said in treating of the salmon, men 

 went out on a winter night to " burn the water," but then it 

 was simply by way of having a frolic. In those halcyon 

 days country gentlemen killed their salmon in the same 

 sense as they killed their own mutton viz. for household 

 eating ; there was no other demand for the fish than that of 

 their own servants or retainers. Farmers kept their smoked 

 or pickled salmon for winter use, in the same way as they 

 did pickled pork or smoked bacon. The fish, comparatively 

 speaking, were allowed to fulfil the instincts of their nature 

 and breed in peace : those owners, too, of either upper or 

 lower waters, who delighted in angling, had abundance of 

 attractive sport ; and, so far as can be gleaned from personal 

 inquiry or reading, there was during the golden age of the 

 salmon a rude plenty of home-prepared food of the fish kind, 

 which, even with the best-regulated fisheries, we can never 

 again, in these times of increasing population, steam-power, 

 and augmented demand, hope to see. 



At present the very opposite of all this prevails. Farmers 

 or cottars cannot now make salmon a portion of their winter's 

 store : permission to angle for that fish is a favour not very 

 easily procured, because even the worst upper waters can be 

 let each season at a good figure ; and more than all that, the 

 fish has become individually so valuable as to tempt persons, 

 by way of business, to engage extensively in its capture at times 

 when it is unlawful to take it, and the animal is totally unfit 

 for food. A prime salmon is, on the average, quite as valuable 

 as a Southdown sheep or an obese pig, both of which cost money 

 to rear and fatten ; and at certain periods of the year salmon 

 has been known to bring as much as ten shillings per pound 

 weight in a London fish-shop ! There have been many causes 

 at work to bring about this falling-off in our supplies ; but 

 ignorance of the natural history of the fish, the want of accord 



