82 THE HISTORY AND HABITS OF THE SALMON. 



over- taken ; and unless the number of nets is diminished, 

 we have every reason to believe that they will soon become 

 entirely extinct. With our coasts, at the mouths of rivers, 

 completely surrounded by a great tissue of network, how 

 is it possible for any fish that breeds in these rivers to 

 survive or multiply as formerly? Really there is no 

 mystery in the matter. It is simply the case of the hen 

 that laid the golden egg. For upwards of twenty years 

 that bag-nets have been in existence, every engine of de- 

 struction has been brought to bear against the salmon, 

 and still there are people who profess to wonder that it 

 does not continue to be taken in as great numbers as for- 

 merly. 



" The remedy for this evil is completely in the hands of 

 the government. There is no difficulty about it; the evil ex- 

 ists because there are thousands at present using bag-nets, 

 &c., who have no right to do so. Let the Crown enforce 

 its prerogative, let all these illegal nets be swept away for 

 several years at least, and then let only a reasonable num- 

 ber be authorised, and we do not hesitate to say, that the 

 salmon will re-appear in as great numbers as ever. Let every 

 assumed proprietor of a fishing be called upon to produce 

 his title ; and is it not fair and reasonable to ask that 

 those who cannot do so should at least desist immediately. 

 Some people think they ought to be required to disgorge the 

 amount of their illegitimate profits during the last twenty 

 years ; but we would be satisfied with simply prohibiting 

 them in future until they acquired by purchase, grant, or 

 otherwise a proper title. This is a step on which the public 

 have a right to insist. We are astonished at the general 

 apathy on this subject. A great and general outcry was 

 raised against the Corn Laws, because it was alleged that, 

 for the sake of a certain class, the price of food was raised 

 to the great mass of consumers. So long, however, as 

 the Corn Laws existed, the landlords were entitled to the 

 prices produced by those laws. But here we have a cer- 

 tain article of food raised to famine prices by the cupidity 

 of men who have really no legal title to what they are ac- 

 customed to claim as their exclusive property. What is 

 this but a species of wholesale robbery ? In former times, 

 salmon was a staple article of food in this country. When 



