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APPENDIX C (see page 167). 



IN the November number of the Fortnightly Review (for 1881) 

 there is an instructive article on the Salmon Fisheries of Great 

 Britain by Mr. Fred. Eden. The views he expresses will have a 

 useful effect in awakening public interest to a subject of much 

 national importance. Mr. Eden, having acted for several years 

 in all parts of the United Kingdom as Government Inspector and 

 Commissioner, in regard to Salmon Fisheries, has had great 

 opportunity of knowing the condition of those fisheries, and ot 

 judging what is necessary for their prosperity. * 



Mr. Eden is evidently apprehensive that, unless some strong 

 measures are taken, the stock of salmon will soon disappear from 

 our rivers. To prevent this, he says it is absolutely necessary to 

 lessen the catch of salmon. With that view he recommends the 

 entire stoppage of net fishing in rivers, except where the tide 

 reaches; and even in tidal waters, he is for prohibiting night 

 fishing. Another suggestion he makes, is the formation of a 

 central office, so that, instead of "separate establishments and 

 different officials for each of the three kingdoms," there should 

 be more uniformity of management, by what he calls a " consoli- 

 dation of the Fishery Offices," viz. by the creation, as I suppose, 

 of an office in London. 



Mr. Eden regrets that he is unable to supply statistics, or any 

 official evidence, to justify his convictions as to the unprosperous 

 condition of our fisheries; no small proof, by the way, of the 

 lamentable absence of information regarding an important national 

 industry, which every well-constituted Government ought to 

 possess. 



Some amount of statistical information, however, may be ob- 

 tained from the official record kept at Billingsgate Market, of the 

 number of boxes of salmon which arrive there from different parts 

 of the United Kingdom. True, London is not the only large town 

 to which British salmon are sent for sale; but it receives an 



