90 THE SALMON. 



before the Canadian Institute, " every stream tributary 

 to the St. Lawrence, from Niagara to Labrador on the 

 north side, and to Gaspe Basin on the south side, 

 abounded with salmon. At the present moment, with 

 the exception of a few, there is not one to be found in 

 any river between the Falls of Niagara and the city of 

 Quebec. This deplorable decrease in a natural produc- 

 tion of great value has arisen from two causes : first, the 

 natural disposition of uncivilized men to destroy at all 

 times and at aU seasons whatever has life and is fit for 

 food ; and, second, the reluctance of those persons who 

 had constructed miU-dams to attach to them sHdes." 

 Unfortunately, it is not only " uncivilized men" that 

 possess the propensity which has desolated so many of 

 the rivers of North America — to say nothing of noble- 

 men, country gentlemen, and corporations, operative 

 fishermen, almost everywhere in the United Kingdom, 

 and especially on the " common fisheries" of England 

 and Ireland, are more or less fuUy possessed with the 

 notion that restrictions as to periods and modes of 

 killing are invasions and injustice, and that the more 

 fish that are killed, the more wUl remain to be killed. 

 When we see the results even on the St. Lawrence and 

 its tributaries, running through comparative deserts, we 

 need not wonder at the evU results of much greater 

 means of destruction employed on a much more ex- 

 haustible field. 



Of the fact that from the earliest historical periods, 

 down to less than a century ago, salmon abounded to 

 excess in the neighbourhood of English and Irish, and 

 stiU more of Scottish rivers, accessible to migratory 



