70 SALMON FISHERY LAWS. 



CHAPTER VIIL 



SALMON FISHERY LAWS, 



I now offer a few remarks upon the important re- 

 sults arising from a judicious system of legislation 

 for the protection of the salmon, as we have had pe- 

 riods of great prosperity in our salmon fisheries suc- 

 ceeded by periods of equal depression, amounting 

 almost to an extinction of the species (in particular 

 rivers), which have arisen from mistaken legislation 

 and other causes to which I wish as briefly as possible 

 to allude. 



It is well known that the salmon can only be bred 

 in fresh water, in which it passes the first, and some- 

 times the second year of its existence, after which it 

 migrates to the sea, in which it may remain only a 

 few months, or from which it returns the same year, 

 but occasionally it does not return for two seasons. 



Different countries have enacted different laws to 

 prevent the destruction of salmon during the spawn- 

 ing season. Scotland may be considered the richest 

 known salmon-producing country, and at a very early 

 period it was found requisite to enact laws for the 

 protection of the salmon fisheries ; it is stated that as 

 early as the year 1030 a law was passed in Scotland 

 rendering ' ' the catching of salmon fry and old salmon 

 during the spawning season punishable." A similar 

 law was passed in England in 1285. Another in 

 Scotland, in 1214, was passed to prevent the use of 

 nets in the middle of the river, and in the reign of 

 Robert I., in 1318, a severe law was passed forbidding 

 the erection of permanently fixed engines of any size 



