THE FALLS OF BALLYSHANNON. 277 



property of those who rear them, and any one 

 who takes them commits a moral wrong." 



" Well, there does seem to be something 

 in that ; but how do you make out the legal 

 wrong ?" 



" Answer me this," said the Squire, " what 

 were the salmon laws made for?" 



" To protect the salmon, I suppose." 



" Right as an oracle," said the Squire ; 

 " but they were made in the dark ages, when 

 our wise representatives imagined that every 

 salmon went to sea with a chronometer in 

 his pocket, and worked up his dead reckon- 

 ing every day, so that, when his cruise was 

 up, he made his port with the same ease and 

 accuracy as an East Indiaman hits off the 

 Sand -heads going out, or the Long -ships 

 coming home. What they meant to do was 

 to protect them, and they thought that when 

 they gave them a mile from the river's 

 mouth they had protected them. 



" Well, now comes this discovery. It 

 turns out, that the salmon are by no means 

 the skilful navigators that our wiseacres 

 supposed them to be ; that when they come 

 home from their cruise they merely make 

 the coast somewhere, it may be a good hun- 



