284 SALMON FISHING 



waste product that cannot be turned to commercial 

 profit. Nevertheless, as will have been gathered 

 from our detailed survey of rivers in the United 

 Kingdom, the ruthless conflict of interests has been 

 going placidly on. Each has been impoverishing 

 itself as well as the others. Although commercial 

 instincts have been the root of the evil, it does not 

 seem to have been realised that the rivers of our 

 islands, which are capable of making the country so 

 pleasant to a sporting people, are, by the same 

 token, potentially a considerable source of national 

 wealth. Only of the miller, among those who have 

 contributed to the derangement, is it possible to 

 think without sorrow. His side stream sometimes 

 reduces the main river so much that salmon which 

 ought to be high up are arrested and fretful in the 

 pool below the dam ; but that is hardly his affair. 

 Others should have seen to it. The riparian pro- 

 prietors, upper and lower, should have built a pass 

 in the dam dyke. 



" Built a pass ! " I can hear some one echoing, 

 in irritation. "Who could do that? Don't you 

 know that nearly all the passes have been failures ? " 



I do know this ; and a very interesting point it 

 is. Until a comparatively recent time, only a 

 langnid intelligence was devoted to the design and 

 construction of passes. It was, indeed, by mere 

 chance that one of the principles of the art was 

 discovered. Reporting on a "pass" that had cost 

 fully <1000, Mr. Frank Buckland, Inspector of 

 Fisheries, said : " The space of about ten feet 



