FRANCE 



133 



farm labourers used to stipulate in their indentures that they should 

 not have salmon to eat more than three times a week. At that not 

 very distant time (1845 to 1870) the market value of a kilogramme* 

 of salmon or trout was not more than from 50 to 75 centimes, and 

 all fishing was then suspended when the first warmth of spring set 

 in, except that pursued for their own consumption by those who 

 dwelt on the banks. 



Brittany, by nature about the finest country that an angler could 

 traverse, rod in hand, is become, with the exception of a part of Finis- 

 terre to be specified later, as depleted as the rest of France. After the 

 advent of railways in Brittany, every mode of destruction came into 

 vogue. The same thing has happened wherever the railway has fur- 

 nished a market for the results of poaching, and the Breton folk have 

 flung themselves on their quarry with perfect ferocity. The State, 

 quite powerless, has, failing a protective law, had no choice but to look 

 on at the destruction of these precious resources. 



This Chateaudin river, formerly so full of salmon and trout, can 

 no longer command anything but the lowest prices for rentals of its 

 waters, 74^^ kilometres yielding the State a revenue of only 589 francs. 

 We have, then, to contemplate the sad spectacle of this depreciation 

 of the rental value of French rivers, and we see stretches of over 

 five kilometres let for five francs the year ! 



The salmon, so valuable a fish, is almost vanishing from our 



rivers, and the yearly importation of salmon ranges 



Salmon, 

 from 600,000 to 700,000 kilogrammes. From these 



statistics we may infer that France has in seven years paid her 



neighbours 20,000,000 francs for imported salmon. 



* A kilogramme is nearly 2h lbs. avoirdupois. 



