208 Thirty-fifth Annual Meeting 
give a total of 61,474 salmon caught in 1904; and the total for 
the country is somewhere above that number. This is within 
the limits of a country having an area of 58,310 square miles, 
that is, about as extensive as the state of Michigan, and inhabited 
by 29,000,000 people. The sale of English and Welsh salmon 
at the great Billingsgate Market in London, which is believed .to 
correspond roughly with the catch, declined in amount from 1894 
to 1990, and after that rose in amount, the quantity passing 
through the market in 1904 being the greatest for ten years. 
The decline which culminated in 1900 appeared so alarming 
as to call for investigation, and a royal commission was ap- 
pointed for that purpose, having jurisdiction in Scotland as well 
as England and Wales After a very thorough inquiry that com- 
mission reported in 1902, and made recommendations embrac- 
ing the enlargement of governmental authority over these fish- 
eries, better regulation of fishing and more thorough enforce- 
ment of the laws governing the fishing, and measures to prevent 
pollution of the rivers, and obstructions to the ascent of salmon ; 
and to secure a better maintenance of the volumes of rivers. 
With reference to artificial hatching they expressed the opinion 
that the case for it had not yet been sufficiently established to 
warrant their recommending the expenditure of public money 
on the establishment of hatcheries for supplying ova or young 
fish to the rivers of Great Britain generally, but that the subject 
was one of great importance and deserving much more careful 
study than it had yet received. They further advised the insti- 
tution of systematic study, by observation and experiment, of the 
value of artificial hatching and of various problems connected 
with the life-history of salmon. 
There exists in England an extraordinary number of fishery 
societies. A lst, which may not be complete, shows fifty such 
organizations in active life in the early part of 1906. By far 
the greater part of them are associations of anglers, as the names 
indicate, and competitive and convivial purposes are prominent 
in their programmes, but some of them are organized for soberer 
purposes, such as the maintenance and enforcement of protective 
laws, the conduct of hatcheries, ete. 
a. 
