BRITISH SALMON-FISHERIES. 33 



diately drew him up on a neighbouring sand-bank, and 

 received the congratulations of my friends on my peculiar 

 mode of taking salmon. 



The principal salmon-rivers in Great Britain are the 

 Tweed, the Tay, the Spey, the Esk, and the Severn. 

 Unfortunately, of late years, through over-fishing and 

 poaching, our salmon-fisheries have suffered a grievous 

 decay, and the interference of the Legislature has been 

 invoked to prevent the resort to improper modes of 

 capture, and to confine the fishing to those seasons of the 

 year most suitable to the habits of the fish. In several 

 places, moreover, salmon-breeding, according to the most 

 improved principles of fish-culture, has been introduced, 

 and with a degree of success which justifies the hope that 

 streams now depopulated may once more yield an abun- 

 dant supply. The salmon is of some importance as an 

 addition to our food-resources. It is difficult, or almost 

 impossible, to obtain any accurate statistics on this point ; 

 but Mr. Russel tells us that in 1862, apparently an 

 ordinary year, three Irish railways conveyed about 400 

 tons of salmon, or about 900,000 Ibs., being equal in 

 weight and treble in value to 15,000 sheep. In Scotland 

 the Tay alone furnishes about 800,000 Ibs., being equal 

 in weight to 20,000 and in value to 60,000 sheep. 

 The weight of salmon produced by the Spey is not in- 

 ferior to the weight of mutton annually yielded to the 

 butcher by each of several of the smaller counties. The 

 diminution in the supply of food caused by the decay of 

 the Tweed fisheries, is about 200,000 Ibs. a year. And, 

 as Mr. Russel reminds us, in making comparisons between 

 the supplies of fish and of flesh, we must recollect that 



