290 Salmon-Fishing. 



when it is illegal to kill them. So long as the nets 

 are spread and that is from February to Sep- 

 tember the only chance a salmon has of reaching 

 the upper waters is during the weekly close-time 

 from Saturday night till Monday morning, or during 

 a flood, when net-fishing is impracticable. 1 In the 

 Keport of the Inspectors of Fisheries (England) for 

 1881, it is stated that the actual number of salmon 

 taken with the rod in the Teify in Wales, during one 

 season, was only 20, against 8700 captured with the 

 nets. If this is so in what the Inspectors call " a 

 river of great excellence," need we wonder at the 

 miserable gleaning that is left for the proprietors on 

 the upper reaches of the Tweed ? The Inspectors 

 admit the injustice which is thus done to the own- 

 ers in the higher districts, and conclude their report 

 thus: " We wish to repeat our strong opinion that the 

 upper proprietors, in many cases, require more con- 

 sideration than has hitherto been afforded to them. 

 Owning, as they do, the most valuable breeding 

 waters in each watershed, their influence is of the 

 first importance in salmon preservation; and the 



1 Mr Young, in his First Report to the Fishery Board for Scot- 

 land, quotes the following from a Tay proprietor : " The weekly 

 close-time must be admitted to be a total failure,, as far as the 

 interests of the upper proprietors are concerned, and necessarily 

 so in a river of such extent as the Tay. The Saturday and Sun- 

 day fish, coming into the river, don't get half-way before they are 

 caught by the Monday morning net." 



