422 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 



the subject knows the difficulty there is in finding the young 

 fish sprouting into life ; and it is evident that between the 

 depositing of the Spawn and its coming to life severe frosts in- 

 tervene, when the water subsides and the Spawn is left dry and 

 injured; in fact, it is but a very small fractional part of Spawn 

 that ever comes to life. 



The supply of Salmon has fallen off not only in the Tyne but 

 in other noted rivers to an alarming degree, and many reasons 

 have been given for the decrease. But, gentlemen, I do not 

 think that it is to either over-fishing or unseasonable -fishing 

 that we must look for the cause of the increasing scarcity. 

 Under favourable conditions the supply of fish would always 

 multiply much more quickly than our needs, and a long or short 

 close season would have but an imperceptible effect on that 

 supply. Eespecting the Tyne the Government Inspector has 

 said that the apparently small effect produced on the fisheries by 

 the great extent and variety of its pollutions, has been ex- 

 plained by the fact that the principal manufactories are situated 

 on the tideway, which is comparatively short, and up which a 

 vast volume of sea water is carried at every flood, diluting and 

 ultimately carrying away on the ebb the polluting' matters. 

 This explanation might probably be strengthened by the con- 

 sideration that, in addition to the scavenging effect of the tide, 

 the constant dredging of the navigation channel by the Tyne 

 Commissioners has had the effect of preventing the continuous 

 deposit of sediment injurious to fish, the disturbance of any ac- 

 cumulation of which by an unusually high flood or tide would 

 cause serious injury. Nevertheless dead Salmon, adult fish as 

 well as smelts, are frequently found in the estuary of the Tyne, 

 showing that neither "up" nor "down" fish can safely run the 

 gauntlet of the pollutions with which it is filled. But our 

 members are well aware that the sewage of the towns and the 

 manufacturing refuse that is discharged into the tideway from 

 alkali and chemical works are not the only sources of pollution, 

 but all the tributaries are polluted. 



During the spring months some rivers are reduced to a very 

 low state, and it is then that large numbers of fish, which having 



