FISHERMEN AND FISHERIES. 207 



(including salmon and fresh-water fish) in considering the 

 influence which man can exert in the way of protection and 

 in the way of destruction ; 2nd, that legislation, whether 

 protective, promotive, or regulative, should only be resorted 

 to on the clearest proof of necessity, and after a full 

 consideration of its probable effects, not only on the fishing 

 industry, but on the many other interests with which that 

 industry is directly or indirectly connected. 



On the first point the distinction between inland fisheries 

 and sea fisheries is both natural and necessary. Fish 

 confined within a narrow area, their access to or egress 

 from which can be completely barred without difficulty, and 

 in which they can be destroyed at the will, often, of a single 

 individual, lend themselves easily to the influence of wise 

 legislation conceived in their interest, or of destructive 

 measures, carried on with a view to immediate gain, and in 

 obliviousness of the future. This is particularly true of Salmon, 

 those species which, living part of the time in the sea, and 

 part in the headwaters of a river, require to have a right of 

 way backwards and fonvards. Such fish are at the mercy, 

 not of one individual alone, but of a series of persons to 

 say nothing of natural difficulties. One man may wish to 

 preserve the salmon in his water, but since he cannot 

 confine them there they may pass on to his neighbour, who 

 is intent on destroying them. The single example of the 

 Thames, the largest river in England, is sufficient proof, if 

 special proof were needed, of the ease with which salmon 

 may be exterminated. In the case, therefore, of salmon at 

 least, the call for protection is loud, and the duty of the 

 State is clear. With purely fresh-water fish the urgency of 

 the call for protection is not necessarily so urgent, but it 

 may very easily become so. 



But in the case of fish living entirely in the open sea the Sea fish. 



