96 THE HISTORY AND HABITS OF THE SALMON. 



that a great and valuable part of mercantile property was 

 fast disappearing from the country, it appears. But they 

 say that it is dangerous to speak from appearances. How- 

 ever, it appears that the principal study of government 

 for years past has been, whether Toryism or Whigism, 

 or any other ism, will get the roast to rule, simply to 

 do so, neglecting national property so much, that it has in 

 a great degree suffered ; but now, since the nation has 

 had the fortune, 1 hope the good fortune, to get nearly all 

 the conflicting ingredients rolled together in one lump, 

 I really trust, which is also the aspiration of many others, 

 that we will get the public business managed in a much 

 more workmanlike manner, and what is done will be rightly 

 done, or not attempted ; for anything done in the shape of 

 redress to the ruined salmon fisheries need not be attempted 

 by any party who is not fully prepared to grapple with 

 the evil in all its roots and branches, and more particu- 

 larly the whole roots, as from them proceeds the greatest 

 destruction. In the first place, an alteration in the pre- 

 sent open and close time is essentially necessary. From the 

 days of King Robert the First of Scotland, up to the year 

 1828, the salmon fisheries in Scotland opened on the 10th 

 of December, and closed on the 26th of August. The sal- 

 mon fisheries then were part and parcel of the properties 

 of the Crown, and regulations to prevent over-fishing, to 

 prevent illegal-sized nets and cruives, and to prevent 

 poaching of all kinds, were strictly attended to. The 

 lord lieutenants and sheriffs of counties were particularly 

 instructed by the Crown to warn, to watch, and see if 

 all these regulations were strictly attended to. And from 

 this care of the different governments, and the strict at- 

 tention of their officers, the salmon fisheries throve, and 

 salmon increased in all the rivers to almost incredible 

 numbers. Why should it not be the case still? The 

 fish has changed none of its habits, and the rivers are the 

 same. Summers and winters as variable as they have 

 ever been, and losses during the spawning times may 

 occur as they have done of yore, but these losses never 

 brought an actual scarcity as we have now ; for the truth 

 is, that now we have scarcely a ghost of breeding fish, and 

 I will tell you plainly, that neither with natural breeding 



