The Value of Salmon Fisheries. 191 



to the butcher by each of several of the smaller 

 counties." 



According to the same authority, the value 

 of the Irish fisheries has been stated semi- 

 officially at £200,000 a year. The fisheries 

 of the Duke of Richmond on the Spey are 

 worth about £13,000 annually, and the right 

 to fish in a river often lets for a larger rental 

 than that of a considerable extent of land on 

 each of its banks. In Great Britain a salmon 

 fishery is as saleable a property as houses or 

 land, and is often held by as ancient a title. 



In the Oregon territory of the United States, 

 the produce of the fisheries is worth £700,000 or 

 £800,000 annually, and the exports of preserved 

 salmon from the Columbia river and its tribu- 

 taries in 1877 were so much increased as to be 

 estimated at a value of a million sterling. 



It is evident, therefore, that if the experi- 

 ment of introducing the salmon into Australian 

 waters should prove successful, very valuable 

 pecuniary results may follow in a not very 

 remote future, besides the sport which will be 

 afforded, and which is not the least of the 

 advantages to be expected from the under- 

 taking. There are good grounds for the belief 



