00-OPEEATION BETTER THAN COMPETITION. 161 



economy of a salmon riyer very ■well. He said, in a letter on 

 the subject — 



"Considering that the only chance of having fish in the 

 rivers depends upon the excellence and care of the breeding- 

 grounds at the river-heads, -while the river-head proprietors, by 

 disturbing the shingle (which should be protected) at the period 

 of depositing and hatching the roe^ could destroy all chance, and 

 yet be legally unchallengeable, these river-head proprietors are 

 hardly recognised as proprietors at all, which therefore should 

 be altered. I propose that a river, from its highest breed- 

 ing-ground to its mouth, and so far into the sea as- private 

 or public interests can extend, should be made a common pro- 

 perty and a common care ; improved where improvable, at the 

 general expense of the whole proprietors along its banks ; fished, 

 not savagely, and as if extermination were a laudable object, 

 but prudently, and with a view to permanent interests ; the fish 

 allowed to go unmolested to the breeding-grounds, at least so 

 far as to secure a full brood, and protected against destruction 

 in returning when unfit for food ; and the expense and the profit 

 to be divided 'pm rata, according to the mileage along the banks ; 

 unless, in the judgment of intelligent and equitable men, a degree 

 of preference should be given in the case of grounds of acknow- 

 ledged excellence for breeding or feeding. It may be said it 

 would be malicious in the proprietors of breeding-grounds to 

 consider it necessary to repair their gravel-walks with shingle 

 from the river at the very time when depositing or hatching 

 the roe was going on ; but could it be prevented % — and would it 

 be more inequitable than anticipating every fish worth catching 

 at the mouth of the river or along their course, and allowing the 

 proprietors of the head-waters no share ? " 



There must of course be a limit to the productiveness of even 

 the most prolific salmon river ; and if this be overpassed and 

 the capital stock be broken upon, it is clear that a decrease will 

 at once begin, and that the production must annually become 

 weaker, till the fish are in course of time completely exter- 

 minated. Happily the prospects of our salmon-fishery proprie- 

 tors never were so bright as they are at present, and as Mr. 

 Jamieson, the intelligent fishmonger of Edinburgh, says, " it is 

 best to let well alone." 



M 



