STOEMONTFIELD EXPEKIMENT. 101 



present, mnltitudes of strong early salmon were 

 permitted to ascend the rivers and fill our High- 

 land streams with spawners, which streams con- 

 tained a fair share of marketable fish during 

 the summer months. The case is now altered, 

 and those who know these feeders will bear us 

 out when we say that there is at present not 

 one fish for an hundred that used to be found 

 in these upper waters. If this is the case in the 

 best spawning grounds of the salmon, how can 

 we expect any other result than a falling off in 

 the number of fish taken in the river? All the 

 fish which are taken in stake or bag nets will 

 never make up the deficiency; and if the law 

 is to remain as it is at present, and if these 

 nets become legalised, and if the weekly close- 

 time is not extended, the sooner our lower 

 salmon proprietors begin artificial propagation 

 on an extensive scale the better. Upper or 

 Highland proprietors of fishings can have little or 

 no interest in artificial propagation, for very few 

 fish at present are allowed to visit their waters, 

 and they cannot be expected to breed fish artifi- 

 cially for the lower proprietors. As it is, they 

 have small inducement to protect the few spawn- 

 ing fish that are permitted to reach their streams. 



