INTRODUCTION. 5 



can exterminate a fish whose progeny is so numerous ; but what, 

 without doubt, ought to be restricted and better regulated is 

 the system of stake and bag net fishing. The salmon never 

 reach their breeding ground at all. The mouths of every 

 river are flanked by stake nets and other dangers. The poor 

 salmon have not the slightest chance. Coasting along the shore, 

 on approaching the fresh water they find a fence which they 

 cannot get through by any means, and which leads them direct 

 into an iniquitous puzzle or trap. If the object of proprietors 

 and lessees of rivers was to exterminate salmon, they could 

 not devise better means to do so than they now practise. 

 Exorbitant and increasing rents necessarily oblige the lessees 

 to use every means in their power to catch sufficient fish to pay 

 their expenses and acquire a surplus. The man who rents 

 a salmon river as a matter of trade and speculation cannot 

 be expected to do otherwise than make the best of his time. 

 He pays a high rent for the right of dragging a net through 

 a certain part of the river ; he pays a rent for the right of 

 putting up stake and bag nets ; he pays numerous servants, and 

 has also the great expense of making and renewing his boats, nets, 

 and other valuable tackle ; and, after all, is generally blamed as 

 the destroyer of the salmon, whereas the real enemy is the pro- 

 prietor who lets the right of fishing, with no more restriction 

 than the common law gives against fishing out of season, etc. 

 At the same time, it must be remembered that one single 

 proprietor can do little towards improving this system unless 

 joined and aided by his neighbours for a considerable distance 

 along the same line of coast. 



" A few years without any wholesale destruction of salmon 

 would bring back this fish to something like their former 

 number, and enable proprietors to ask and obtain the same rents 

 that they now do from English and other sportsmen who 

 come northwards for angling. As it now is, angling in many 

 salmon rivers (formerly plentifully supplied) is a mere joke. 



" Excepting during the run of grilse, angling in many rivers is 

 next to useless ; and this can only be well remedied by a system 



