114 NATUKAL HISTOEY OF THE SALMON". 



upon it; some of these are of a height that, even 

 at the greatest floods, salmon find it impossible to 

 surmount. All that is wanted at the dam-dykes 

 is salmon ladders ; but who is to be at the expense 

 of these erections? is the question; and until a 

 bill, similar to the English Fisheries Bill, be ex- 

 tended to Scotland, no remedy will be found for 

 this beautiful little stream, whose waters are also 

 poisoned by chemical mixtures which are dis- 

 charged into it from manufactories on its banks. 

 By obstructing the free passage of the salmon to the 

 spawning grounds, by "the mill-dam, the torch, 

 and the spear," as Colonel Whyte has observed, 

 "the rivers of Halifax, that twenty years ago were 

 teeming with salmon, are now utterly destroyed; 

 and also the rivers of Canada, which at no distant 

 date were swarming with sea-trout and salmon, 

 have fallen so much off, from the same cause, that 

 Government has at length interfered to stay the 

 destruction; and, in not a few instances, recourse 

 has been had to artificial propagation to re-stock 

 some of the rivers." Some theorists affirm that 

 salmon and civilisation cannot exist together, as 

 draining and limeing will, in the long run, destroy 

 the fish in any river along whose banks it is carried 

 on ; but this cannot be the cause of the falling off 



