4O INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 



Where salmon place their eggs they may be seen 

 and protected, or destroyed, whereas sea fish carry on 

 their operations far beyond the care or knowledge of 

 man. 



The salmon is a migratory fish, ever on the move ; 

 some of them must have travelled hundreds and others 

 thousands of miles during their lifetime, between 

 their feeding and breeding grounds, and it is only by 

 the steady application of science and actual practice 

 that we have discovered what little we now know. 

 Any one who thinks he is going to understand the 

 subject without labour will find himself mistaken, 

 since many clever men who have been engaged all 

 their lives in salmon fisheries have been compelled to 

 acknowledge their great, ignorance. The person who 

 wishes to succeed will find that he must labour dili- 

 gently and carefully ; that he must not despair after 

 repeated failures, but quietly work on, in spite of op- 

 position, till he obtains the fruit of his labours. One 

 thing is perfectly clear unless the young salmon are 

 bred, and the parents protected from their enemies, 

 there can by no possibility be any quantity of salmon, 

 for the same reason that if there are no lambs there 

 can be no sheep. 



There are many persons in the kingdom who de- 

 rive their living by the capture of salmon, and who 

 exist by the sale of this produce, yet these know or 

 care very little about the way or means by which 

 their WATER-FARM is sustained and supplied with a 

 stock offish. 



Let us, therefore, ascertain something of the natural 

 history and habits of the salmon, and study the vari- 

 ous operations requisite for its cultivation, both by the 

 natural process, and by artificial means, and try to 

 discover its enemies, many of which are numerous, 

 and of the most destructive- character, as I shall pre- 

 sently explain. 



