248 APPENDIX. 



ouglit, as a matter of justice to the other proprietors of 

 fisheries, whose prospects they are destroying and have 

 destroyed — as a matter touching the common profit of the 

 realm — as a matter of destruction to the best and most 

 valuable fish which we have, and a most important branch 

 of the nation's food and resources, to he done away with 

 utterly. 



If they are done away with, in a very few years good 

 salmon wiU be M. a pound, instead of from Is. to 3s. 6d 

 We now import salmon from Holland very largely, eftid 

 the fish are indifferent and flavourless compared to our 

 own ; and I am informed by one of the largest Billingsgate 

 salesmen, that were it not for this importation, and were 

 we to rely upon our own salmon for a supply, salmon 

 would now, in this month of May, 1861, in which I 

 am writing,! be not less than five shillings per pound I 

 This statement ought to tell its own story: it ought to 

 startle us into activity. Five shillings per pound ! for an 

 article of food which does not cost one farthing to pro- 

 duce ! ! In fact, the salmon consumer may consider that 

 he pays a tax of from &d. to 3s. a pound to the fixed 

 engines for salmon-slaying, while the great bulk of the 

 nation are deprived of salmon altogether by them. 



The close-time, during which salmon shall be allowed 



increase in the value of salmon, there has been a regular and steady 

 increase of bag and stake nets, amounting altogether to some 200. 

 Just as these nets have increased, so in exact proportion the take 

 of salmon has steadily and regularly decreased. This fact speaks 

 volumes. 



1 This portion of my work was written at the above date, and as 

 it serves to support the argument, I leave the date still standing. 



