STOKMONTFIELD EXPERIMENT. 99 



floods, and consequently lost. To obviate this, 

 and to allow a proper stock of spawners to reach 

 the higher feeders of a large river, the weekly 

 closetime should at the least be forty-eight hours. 

 The natural enemies of the salmon in the sea, man 

 has no power to curtail. This is not the case, 

 however, in the fresh water, for he can increase 

 or diminish by his protecting or destroying them, 

 with the exception of the insect tribe, over which 

 he can have little or no control. To diminish 

 the number of insects in a river, even if it were 

 possible, would be unwise, as their larvae and 

 themselves are the principal food of the young 

 fish; but far more of the ova of the genus salmo 

 are destroyed by the larvao of insects than by 

 all other enemies put together. The pike, the 

 river trout (salmo fario), and other foes to the 

 increase of salmon, if salmon proprietors were 

 alive to their own interest would soon be dimi- 

 nished in our salmon rivers ; instead of that, the 

 enemies of the salmon have increased for some 

 years past in most of our salmon streams. This 

 fact cannot be doubted, for at the present time 

 our salmon rivers are shut to all but the favoured 

 few who have obtained permission from the pro- 

 prietor, or who can afford to pay dearly for the 



