38 POPULAR PREJUDICES. 



desire for gain. The cost of protecting the Tay salmon- 

 fisheries is only about a fourth of what it costs the Com- 

 missioners to protect the river Tweed." It must not be 

 supposed, however, that no poaching takes place on the 

 Tay. 



The worst of it is, that the public themselves are 

 growing impatient of a legislation which is designed for 

 their benefit, simply because they hear so much of it 1 

 In Scotland the river-fisheries are regulated by about 

 twenty Acts, and have been the subject of more Govern- 

 ment inquiries than we care to count. The consequence 

 is, that people who know little or nothing of the economy 

 of the fish, or of its natural history, have come to regard 

 the favour shown to this particular inhabitant of the 

 waters with something like annoyance. At the bottom 

 of this feeling, we suspect, lurks a kind of undefinable 

 prejudice against the salmon as the rich man's fish. Its 

 present price renders it a rare dish at the table of the 

 householder of average means ; and as for the peasantry, 

 most of them say, we fancy, what a villager once said to 

 ourselves, " Saumon is iia for the likes of we ! " They 

 grudge, therefore, the care and attention bestowed upon 

 it, and hate the supervision exercised by the police force. 



Their prejudices would disappear if their ignorance 

 were enlightened ; if they could be made to understand 

 that a regulation of the fisheries is essential if the salmon 

 is to be preserved as a British fish, and that efficient 

 regulation means increased supply, and increased supply 

 reduced prices. The salmon is a valuable article of food, 

 and with proper care ought to be brought within the 

 reach of the average purchaser. There is no reason why 

 it should not become much cheaper than meat; for which. 



