ARTIFICIAL REARING SUGGESTED 45 



model of those made by him, all these evils would 

 be avoided. The fry might be .produced in any 

 quantities by artificial impregnation ; be preserved, 

 and turned into the great river at the proper period 

 of migration. There might at first be some diffi- 

 culty in procuring food for them ; but this would 

 easily be got over. At a very small expense, and 

 with a few adult salmon, more fry may be sent to 

 sea annually than the whole produce of the river at 

 present amounts to, after having encountered the 

 sweeping perils I have mentioned. 1 



Proprietors should call meetings for this purpose ; 

 and parrs, hitherto so called, should be protected 

 by law. Let all who have an interest in the river 

 consider the wisdom of mutual accommodation. 

 The proprietors of the lower part of the river are 

 dependent on the upper ones for the protection of 

 the spawning fish and the fry ; and they on their 

 part depend upon the lower ones for the strict 

 adherence to the weekly close time. 



I think this method of artificial impregnation 

 would prove somewhat more successful than the 

 method said to be adopted by the Chinese, which, 

 for the better enlightening of barbaric nations, I 

 will transmit to posterity, from the authority of 

 " The English Chronicle " of the 25th July, 1839 : 



1 It is melancholy to record that at this day, when artificial propaga- 

 tion is so well understood and conducted successfully on so many 

 Scottish rivers throughout the whole length of the Tweed, there is 

 only one small hatchery, at Lord Polwarth's residence, Mertoun. The 

 impunity with which poaching is permitted to prevail, both in the sea 

 during the annual close time and on the spawning grounds of the upper 

 reaches, discourages proprietors from undertaking this beneficial 

 enterprise. ED. 



