DECAY OF SALMON. 101 



the decline in produce^ during forty-five years, but also, 

 by comparison with the tabulated figures preceding, the 

 degree in which the produce may decline even while the 

 rent rises ; in other words, how much more and sooner 

 the loss falls on the public than on the proprietors. The 

 figures are the condensed essence of a great mass of re- 

 turns, showing the average annual produce of the Tweed, 

 during each period of five years from 1811 down to 1855 

 (a year after which, alarm being taken, statistics ceased 

 to be attainable), and require no further preface, even to 

 those least acquainted with salmon nomenclature, than 

 this, that " salmon" means the adult of the Salmo solar, 

 whether two or twenty years old, which has ascended 

 and propagated at least once before ; that " grilse" is 

 the same fish in a maiden condition, on its first ascent ; 

 and that " trout" is the Salmo eriox of naturalists, a 

 comparatively coarse and low-priced fish, nowhere found 

 in such proportionate abundance as in the Tweed : — 



In supplement, we may give separately the actual 

 produce of the season 1855, which is included, of course, 

 in the last of the above quinquennial periods : — 



Salmon. Grilse. Trout. 



6,329 13,952 23,736, 



