286 APPENDIX. 



If it were possible to say how many fish are sufficient 

 to stock a river well, and to let so many run up to fulfil 

 that office ; nay, if it were possible to deal with and count 

 our shoals of salmon, as a farmer does his flocks of sheep 

 and his oxen, and if we could be sure that the spawn 

 beds would not run dry or be otherwise destroyed, we 

 might reduce this point to a matter of calculation and 

 figures, and become extremely practical and arithmetical, 

 over it. But it is not possible, and therefore the best and 

 only way is to give the fish a reasonable and fair — indeed, 

 a favourable chance rather than the reverse — of getting up 

 to the head-streams without let or hindrance in good 

 time. But have we done so? Nay, we have rather 

 waged a war of utter extermination against the salmon. 

 Any one who has seen the ingenious variety and the 

 multitude of engines formerly set up on our coasts, 

 estuaries, and rivers to bar the progress of and capture 

 our salmon, must have been filled with wonder that a 

 single salmon ever escaped them. 



To commence with the rivers. In every favourable pool 

 and stream we have draught-nets of immense capacity, 

 worked one over the other incessantly at all hours, to 

 intercept and sweep on shore the fish that are running 

 up ; we had nets which were half fixed — that is, fixed at 

 one end, and extended across the stream : against these 

 the salmon would strike, and the end of the net was 

 immediately brought round, so that the salmon were 

 enclosed and dragged on shore ; we had nets of a some- 

 what similar nature, which were lifted up from below; 

 we have nets of every variety and construction, worked 



