42 DUTCH SALMON. 



many mouths in Holland, I expected to see salmon everywhere 

 in that country, and to find it cheap, but in that I was disap- 

 pointed. There can be no doubt that the mighty father of 

 waters contains in his liquid bosom a great army of fish. The 

 fish breeding and feeding grounds of a river which has a course 

 of nine hundred mUes, and which is supplemented, on its way 

 to the sea, by hundreds of minor streams, must be numerous 

 and productive, but for all that I was told that Rhine salmon 

 were not so plentifnl in Holland as they had once been. No 

 wonder. A salmon river and its tributaries, to be thoroughly 

 economised, requires, like the Duke of Richmond's Spey, to be 

 under the management of one person, or at any rate to be sub- 

 ject to some one set of laws. But as the Rhine flows through 

 several kingdoms, such an arrangement is obviously impossible. 

 A fish may be bred in some far away tributary, and after pass- 

 ing through the territory of the King of Prussia, may be cap- 

 tured in Holland ! Although salmon are now comparatively 

 scarce in Holland, I was told the old story of its having been 

 once so plentiful that apprentices used to bargain against eating 

 it oftener than twice a week ! Now, I daresay they never see it 

 except on rare holiday occasions, it being quite as dear in Hol- 

 land as in London, averaging about Is. 8d. per pound, and from 

 aU I can learn never likely to be cheaper imder present circum- 

 stances, — Is. 4d. per pound weight being about the price at 

 which salmon is sold to the dealers. The fish is, of course, • 

 dearer when bought retail. 



Salmon fisheries in Holland appear to be well managed, so 

 far as capturing the fish is concerned, some of them being fished 

 very systematically. I paid a visit to one on the Maas, a 

 few miles above Rotterdam, and easily accessible by means of the 

 steamer to Dordrecht. It is worked by a company of gentlemen 

 in Rotterdam, who rent it from Mr. Van Briennan, and it is 

 situated on a terrace on the right bank of the river — that is, it 

 is worked from the terrace which is fitted up for the purpose. 

 Except during the fence months, which the Company are careful 

 to observe, the fishing is worked night and day, the nets being 

 tugged out from the upper end of the terrace by means of a small 

 steamboat, which, sweeping down the river for about a mile, 

 lands the fish at a stage constructed for the purpose, when they 

 are at once carried in a hand net to a large floating iron tank 

 pierced with the necessary holes for permitting a full supply of 

 water, there to be kept alive till they are required for market. 



