APPENDIX. 



I. 



REASONS FOR THE DECREASE OF SALMON. 



The decrease of salmon is not a matter of yesterday, but 

 may be traced back during a period of more than a 

 quarter of a century, though undoubtedly that decrease 

 has of late years progressed with alarming rapidity. If 

 we take our average of the fishings over a reasonable 

 period, we shall find that the mode of fishing lately 

 adopted in Scotland and Ireland, but now, happily, for 

 the most part abolished in England, and seriously checked 

 in both Scotland and Ireland, sadly depreciated those 

 fisheries. When I speak of a reasonable period, I do 

 not mean to confine it to any five, ten, or fifteen years, 

 but to take it, as we only fairly can do, by the changes 

 that have taken place in the methods of fishing. 



For example, some twenty years ago, the Irish fisheries, 



by poaching, &o., were in a very reduced state. Laws 



were passed, and the rivers put under the management 



of officers appointed to see to them. In a very few 



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