226 THE SALMON. 



causes, such as the lengthening of the close-time, have 

 been at work during portions of the same period. A 

 similar remark applies, in a less degree, to the more 

 extensive operations carried on in Galway by Mr. Ash- 

 worth, who, since he resorted to transplanting and arti- 

 ficial rearing, along with better protection and other such 

 appliances, has found the produce or annual capture of 

 his fisheries to have increased no less than tenfold. 



What the system of nursing and protecting the 

 young of the salmon till reaching the migratory stage can 

 do is plain enough, though not capable of exact measure- 

 ment : it affords almost entire protection from the dangers 

 and destruction which beset eggs lying exposed for months 

 to floods and frost, and beasts, birds, and fishes of prey, 

 and also from those which beset the young fry, exposed 

 for more than a year or two years of the most helpless 

 period of their existence to hosts of devouring enemies, 

 human as well as inhuman. What proportion of the enor- 

 mous destruction which undoubtedly befalls the salmon 

 race between birth and marriage accrues during the 

 period in which the race can be thus cared for, cannot 

 be ascertained ; but it is certain, and it is enough, that 

 the loss or waste during that period is stupendous, and 

 the gain or saving of semi-domestic rearing proportion- 

 ally great. 



What the system cannot accomphsh, is equally obvi- 

 ous — it cannot, as things stand, do much or anything 

 for the fish after the age of infancy. And this is not 

 only a great drawback in itself, but it tends powerfully 

 to produce difficulties and discouragements as to the 

 doing of what can really and beneficially be done. One 



