NATURAL HISTORY OF THE SALMON. 21 



I should think, seventy years ago, have purchased 

 a small cow and calf. I cannot, of course, vouch 

 for the truth of his assertion, but the man declared 

 it when at a very great age, and when he could have 

 no motive or interest in telling me a falsehood. This 

 is an additional proof, if any were required, that 

 the grand obstacle to the increase of the salmon 

 fisheries, is, the impediment which the fish every 

 where meet with in ascending and descending the 

 rivers; the two grand evils are, the obstructions 

 by fish-locks and the spearing. But it is cu- 

 rious to see how interest sports with principle. 

 The spearers cry out against the weirs and ol> 

 structions, because such weirs and obstructions 

 spoil their sport and diminish the product of 

 their harvest; and the owners of weirs are for 

 punishing the spearers with the utmost severity of 

 the law. Thus the one is for plucking out the mote 

 that is in his brother's eye, without perceiving the 

 beam that is in his own. Every one has a right to 

 make the most of his property ; but that right 

 should be exercised fairly. The right of taking 

 fish is a kind of common right ; one man takes 

 them at one place, and another man at another 

 place ; and so on to a third and a twentieth ; but 

 if the first man can erect an impervious weir, to 

 bring up all the fish at one particular place where 

 he may have the whole at once, how are the 

 others to have their rights ? If a man has a right 

 to stock a common with fifty sheep, and were to 

 turn in five hundred, the utmost number it could 



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