UNPRODUCTIVENESS OF STREAMS. 55 



more owners, and the annual income be opportioned 

 relatively to each proprietor. By this means that 

 which is now a barren, unproductive waste would be 

 converted into the means of producing a vast amount 

 of valuable and nutritious food for public use, to the 

 extent, in Ireland alone, of probably 100,000 

 annually, in which country the cultivated salmon 

 fisheries now yield, in money value, about ,330,000 

 annually. 



Many of the rivers to which I have alluded as un- 

 productive, possess some salmon at present, and in 

 others where this is not the case they could easily be 

 stocked from adjoining rivers. As an instance of the 

 possibility of doing this, we have the river at Doo- 

 hulla, not more than ten feet in width, but having 

 several tributaries, upon which a quantity of salmon 

 ova had been deposited and hatched artificially ; the 

 fish so produced migrated to the sea, and afterwards 

 returned to the place of their birth, and were caught 

 in this small stream with lakes upon it, although they 

 might have resorted to other much larger contiguous 

 rivers. As an instance of the importance of protec- 

 tion to the salmon during the breeding season, and 

 as an evidence that this principle meets with public 

 approbation, I need only mention the aggregate 

 amounts of money raised for this purpose, as stated 

 in the Commissioners' report. They say: "The 

 gross amount raised from licence duties for the pro- 

 tection of the fish in the close season was in 1863, 

 5,892 7s. 6d. ; and in 1865, 6,722 16s. 8d., being 

 an increase of 830 9s. 2d. as compared with the 

 largest revenue ever previously raised for protection 

 in Ireland. 



I have made some allusion to the largest as well as 

 the smallest of our salmon-producing rivers, I may 

 now add a few remarks upon these latter rivers. 



It is only when the fish have left their food on the 



