IRELAND 213 



fish and birds; tame ducks enjoy salmon spawn. 

 If the summer after a good spawning season is very 

 dry, most of the fry are eaten by rats and birds and 

 brown trout. If the summer is dry, and the wind 

 moves the fresh water, which floats on the top of 

 the salt water, from the Erne River along the south 

 shore of Donegal Bay, all the fish, or nearly all, 

 run on it as if they were hounds on the scent of 

 a fox; and that fishery gets them. If there are 

 floods in July, and the wind blows the Duff water 

 towards the Erne and the Bundrowes, the fish come 

 to Duff. We make a large or a small fishing as 

 these different causes produce good or bad effects 

 on Bunduff fishery. As one of the oldest Con- 

 servators of the Ballyshannon No. 13 District, I 

 state that the salmon are becoming exterminated 

 by drift nets, fixed draft nets, and winter poaching. 

 I see no hope of preserving salmon, lake trout, or 

 sea-trout. It is unpopular and impolitic to punish 

 any one in Ireland for killing a man or a salmon." 



