Dublin Natural History Society. 4393 



that time approaches, for salmon do not at all times enter the rivers for the object of 

 breeding. Seasons and localities alone influence the salmon to proceed to the 

 spawning-beds, according to the condition of the early and late breeding fish. Mr. 

 Shaw's experiment proves that the salmon which he captured for the purpose of ob- 

 taining the ova for artificial impregnation, and placed in ponds after he had success- 

 fully effected the object, on being liberated from the ponds at once moved towards the 

 sea. Frequent remarks have been advanced, that to the destructive floods of 1848 

 and 1849 were to be attributed the scarcity of salmon the following years. I was on 

 the South-west coast in the season of 1849 and 1850. Our salmon-fisheries in the 

 Feohanagh and the Clehane were complete failures in 1850, and there certainly was a 

 scarcity of peal that season. Our western rivers are very late, and salmon do not in 

 the generality of them approach until late in the season. After the season had closed 

 the salmon were plentiful in the estuaries, and this was strikingly the case late in the 

 season of 1850, for great quantities of fish were hanging about the mouths of the 

 rivers, unable or uninclined to ascend until very late in the season. The season of 

 that year was uncommonly dry, and the rivers were low the greater part of the autumn ; 

 and it was not until October that the fish entered the rivers. At that time I heard 

 that those that were taken were in prime condition. On inquiries the same season I 

 found that similar causes to some extent affected the Lee and the Slaney, and that 

 long after the season had closed the salmon were to be found going up the rivers, and 

 in prime condition. This went far to prove that in some of those late rivers the sea- 

 son closes much too early (at least for the rod), and on the other hand the season 

 should not commence too early. Again, there aie exceptions, for in some rivers there 

 is a good run of clean fish the greater part of the year. It is quite clear that salmon 

 do not desert the rivers of their origin, for whatever natural causes may induce or op- 

 pose their earlier or later ascent from the sea, they invariably seek the parent stream. 

 Their visits to the sea are confined to those depths off the coast where the river dis- 

 embogues, and where rocky ledges and sandy and shingly channels afford protection, 

 and abundance of marine animals for the proper nourishment of their rapid growth. 

 Experience has proved to me the unsound views advanced of the migration of fish. 

 Cod, ling, haddock, hake, pollock and herrings are throughout the year in the deep 

 water, their proper feeding-grounds bordering the parts of the coast, and the bays and 

 estuaries, where they each season approach to spawn. All oviparous fish visit the 

 shoaler parts of a coast to spawn, and those periods are now the seasons of the fisher- 

 men's harvest. An experimental cruise in 1850 proved the correctness of these views. 

 On proper sounding-grounds off the coast the finest ling and cod were taken long after 

 the usual season was over, thus fully bearing out the statements that had been made 

 to the late Admiral Sir Thomas Ussher and to the Earl of Clarendon. My friend 

 James Edw. Stop ford, Esq., in connexion with the Royal Irish Fisheries Company, is 

 now on the South-west coast working out more extensively these trials. In these in- 

 quiries it is difficult to overcome the prejudices and habits of the coast fishermen : 

 educated only in the knowledge of their fathers, they are hostile to any innovation of 

 that knowledge, and therefore cannot comprehend the views of the practical naturalist, 

 to learn accurately the nature of the soundings, the marine animals, the characteristics 

 of and distribution of fish, which all tend to arrive at information so necessary with 

 regard to the feeding, the spawning-grounds, and the habits of animals connected with 

 so important a branch of resource. In concluding, these observations must only be 

 considered general, as it is my intention to enter more minutely into the distinctive 



