SECTION III. 



MIGRATORY SALMONIDJG. 



The Salmon. 



The salmon is a fish too well known to require any particular 

 description. It is a very general fish, frequenting most of our 

 rivers, though from being so much sought after its numbers are 

 far less in the Southern parts of the kingdom than formerly, when 

 it was the common practice to insert in the indentures of all the 

 parish apprentices when bound out, that they should under no cir- 

 cumstances be required to eat salmon oftener than two days out of 

 seven. The cause of this falling off may be attributed in a great 

 measure to the cupidity of the owners of the lower parts of the 

 river, who erect weirs it is impossible for the salmon to pass 

 over, except during the time of heavy floods. The greater portion 

 of the fish therefore that are detained by this barrier, being caught 

 by the owners of these weirs, but few are left to ascend to 

 reproduce their species ; and of those that do go up by far the 

 greater number are taken in their progress, or are doomed to 

 perish by the spear of the poacher when in the act of depositing 

 their spawn ; the effect of which must be apparent to every one : 

 added to which immense numbers of the tiny fry that seek shelter 

 from the strength of the turbulent current of the river in the more 

 quiet leats that supply the neighbouring mills, are destroyed by the 

 turning off the water, which it is the common practice to do for 

 the express purpose of catching them ; so that what with the weirs 

 below, a considerable sprinkling of fishermen fair and foul above, 

 and the poachers, it is really wonderful how salmon should be as 



