10 THE SALMON. 



The Return also, as being a purely Scottish Return, ex- 

 cludes about three-fourths of the fisheries of the Tweed, 

 both banks of that river being pohtically in England for the 

 first five miles, which comprise the most valuable fisheries. 

 When, therefore, it is said that the total annual value 

 for Scotland, shown by this Return, is £52,615, it has 

 also to be said that that sum is little more than a mul- 

 tiplicand requiring to be operated upon by some un- 

 ascertained multiplicator in order to bring out a correct 

 result. All the facts that can be got thus serve but vaguely 

 to indicate the aggregate value of fisheries which, even 

 confining the view to Scotland, invade almost every- 

 thing that can be called river, and sentinel at close 

 though irregular intervals at least a thousand miles of 

 coast. It is enough, however, for present purposes, 

 that the salmon-fisheries of the United Kingdom form 

 a property indisputable as to right, and reckoning as to 

 rental or annual value by hundreds of thousands of 

 pounds — as to value of product, by at least three or 

 four times the rental. Perhaps it may be desirable to 

 add, for the benefit or the placating of such persons 

 as may be disposed to think that, in such matters, la 

 propriety c'est le vol, that in England and Ireland 

 a considerable proportion of the fisheries (in Ireland, 

 it is said, more than a half) are not private property 

 at all, but are as free to all comers as the fisheries for 

 cod or ling. 



Similar difficulties stand in the way of ascertaining 

 the total amount of employment furnished by the 

 salmon-fisheries, though here again it is comparatively 



