" EARL Y" A ND " LA TE " SALMON RIVERS. 9 1 



December and January clean fish entering it, 

 wlien they can ; but the state of things here is pretty 

 much like that described with regard to the Island 

 Bridge Fishery in the Liffey. The upward fish have 

 been stopped by the weir in the town of Sligo, and 

 accumulated below it, where on the 1st of February 

 an ample haul is generally effected. There are other 

 instances of the " presence " as the naturalists say, of 

 these early fish, besides those to which I have re- 

 ferred, but it would be too tedious a proceeding to 

 enumerate them ; so I shall finish my yarn, which I 

 fear I have already spun to an unwarrantable length, 

 with the Munin in Mayo. This river and the Owen- 

 more unite just above the head of the tideway. The 

 Munin flows from Carramore lake ; the Owenmore is 

 not connected with a lake ; " clean " and " foul " fish 

 come up the estuary in company in December and 

 January ; all the clean fish turn up the former, all the 

 foul fish up the latter. From the close connection of 

 these two towns, they are often quoted as the great 

 example in Ireland of the anomalous proceedings of 

 those fish, after all comparatively very few, which 

 take up their quarters in the fresh-water lakes or deep 

 pools of rivers to sojourn there so long before their 

 spawning-time arrives. 



And now, to sum up for the jury of naturalists, 

 who it is expected will give the case of the migrat- 

 ing of salmon their attentive consideration. I would 



