OF ALL COUNTRIES. 519 



CHAPTER VI. 



DIMINUTION AND REPRODUCTION. 



Others will come, my lord, all sorts of fish. 



May. 



LIKE almost every other commodity, fish experienced the 

 effect produced upon commerce by the introduction of 

 railways, not merely in the increased production of the 

 staple, but in the relative importance of the different kinds. 

 Freshwater fishing in modern days has sunk almost into 

 insignificance in comparison with coast fisheries, hardly 

 noticed at the commencement of the present century, from 

 the multiplied facilities for sale and transit ; but the increased 

 activity in regard to our streams and rivers has by no 

 means been followed by the same gratifying results. For 

 that the inhabitants of our inland waters have disappeared 

 with alarming rapidity in proportion as the numbers of 

 fishermen have grown larger, cannot, unfortunately, be 

 doubted for a moment. We may or may not give implicit 

 credence to the venerable story of the apprentices' objection 

 to the salmon, though it is strange that no indenture of 

 the kind has ever been brought to light in spite of the 

 handsome reward offered for a sight of it ; just as we may 

 or may not altogether believe the parallel case of the little 

 pauper child who was taken out to Canada, and there ran 

 away from an excellent situation, for no other reason than 



