APPENDIX. 97 



nor artificial breeding, will we ever have anything like a 

 supply of breeding fish until the present fishery laws are 

 changed ; but let our fisheries open on the 1st of Janu- 

 ary, and close on the 20th of August, and very soon we 

 will have plenty of breeding fish ; for the whole de- 

 pendence for such a supply is from early closing, and it 

 is well known, that the clean salmon that ascend the 

 rivers in January do not spawn until they again return to 

 the sea; before spawning time, therefore, killing such 

 cannot in the least injure the breed in the river. I 

 would also allow angling up to the 1st of October, so as 

 to encourage anglers to assist in protecting the breeding 

 fish after that time. But I entirely protest against le- 

 galising rod-fishing throughout the year, as is now pro- 

 posed by some, for it is evident that all salmon are get- 

 ting foul and inferior after 1st of October, and very 

 many of them long before that time. Therefore, to make 

 it lawful to kill foul fish at any time of the year would 

 be a large step in the wrong direction. And moreover, 

 it would loose all the idlers of the country on the rivers, 

 and why not? for what is sauce for the goose would 

 just be sauce for the gander. If a gentleman kill a foul 

 fish for sport, a hungry poor man will do the same from 

 necessity, if there be no law against it. Consequently, we 

 must condemn fishing of all kinds throughout the year in 

 salmon rivers and streams. 



" Secondly, the next thing the legislature has to grapple 

 with is fixtures; viz. stake-nets, bag-nets, cruives, and in short 

 all kinds and descriptions of fixed machinery, that stand 

 in the way of salmon progressing to the rivers. Those 

 who are proprietors of salmon rivers, have them either by 

 a grant from the Crown along with their lands, or by 

 purchase. But whether the Crown gave or sold these 

 fisheries to the forefathers of the present holders, it is evi- 

 dent they were given for the salmon of these rivers, and 

 not for the water of the rivers, and because they were a 

 nursery for fish to be captured by others. Therefore, after 

 these rivers and the salmon belonging to them were given 

 away, it would be an entire breach of faith, were the 

 Crown to erect batteries and bulwarks of any kind to pre- 

 vent the salmon from reaching these rivers, and in that 

 H 



