DECAY OF SALMON. 93 



they cast their spawn,^ and cover it with sand, and then 

 they are so poor and lean that they are oilly skin and 

 bone ; of that spawn, in the spring, comes a fry of tender 

 little fishes, who make directly to the sea, and, growing 

 to their full progress, return to the river where they 

 were spawned." Defoe wrote this about the same time 

 as Burt wrote ; and another traveller, of nearly the same 

 period, describing himself as " A Gentleman," begins his 

 book : — " The salmon-fishery is particularly the dehght 

 and the boast of the Scotch, insomuch that for it they 

 too miich neglect all the rest." Speaking of Perth, the 

 same writer says : — " The salmon taken here, and all 

 over the Tay, are extremely good, and the quantity pro- 

 digious. They convey them to Edinburgh, and to all 

 the towns where they have no salmon, and barrel-up 

 great quantities for exportation." Of Aberdeen : — " The 

 quantity of salmon and perches (?) taken in both rivers 

 is a kind of prodigy ; the profits are very considerable, 

 the salmon being sent abroad into dift'erent parts of the 

 world, particularly into England, France, the Baltic, and 

 several other places." Of the Ness, he says : — " Here is 

 a great salmon-fishery," and he was more interested than 

 gratified by the sight of the " cruives," then used by the 

 Corporation of the town. These statements — and they 

 might easUy be multiplied — are of course good evidences 

 of local plenty, and also of a very considerable export of 

 the fish in a salted state, though it must not be forgotten 

 that at the period when travellers assigned such great 

 commercial importance to our salmon-fisheries they must 

 be held as speaking in some degree by comparison with 

 other industries, which were then insignificant. 



