and cm the Salmcyii-Fisheries. 
355 
within my view at Balmerino p- 74. “I have known one seal take six or 
eight fish in the course of two hours and a half p. 75. The grampuses ap- 
pear in April, and continue till October. They go up and doAvn with the tide. 
“ There are some hundreds,” p. 47. Mr Halliday says, “ I have seen as 
much salmon in the stomach of a porpoise (grampuses are so called, in the 
Tay) as a man could lift ; ’ p. 7d* In reference to the quantity of salmon con- 
sumed by these mammalia, he says, “ I have often thought that they destroyed 
four or five times more than all the fishermen of the Tay;” p. 75. Since the 
removal of the stake-nets, these depredators have increased ; p. 47. 75. Mr 
Little states, that there are feAv seals in the Solway (where there are stake- 
nets), but that they are numerous in Ireland. The grampuses are in all the 
sea-coasts around Scotland and Ireland. It is indeed probable, that, in the 
United Kingdom Seas, grampuses devour many more salmon than the inha- 
bitants. 
4. Cultivation of the Land . — Mr Halliday says, “ Since the lands have been 
so much drained, the rivers fall in so fast, that fish cannot get up to the higher 
parts of the river so freely as formerly,” p. 82 ; and Mr Little says, “ I con- 
sider that the draining of the land in Scotland has been as injurious to the 
fishings as the limeing of it. Formerly the small waters, in consequence of 
the rains remaining long in the land and in the marshes, were a length of time 
in rising and falling ; now they get up very rapidly, and fall very rapidly. 
The salmon, when they go up those little rivers to breed, deposit the spawn ; 
and, at a season of the year when the spawn ought to rise from the gravel, it 
is left dry p. 117. These remarks can only apply to the lower and smaller 
streams of our estuaries which flow through the cultivated districts, insignifi- 
cant as salmon breeders, but are inapplicable to the higher branches of our 
principal rivers, which are fed by the mountains. What drainage has taken 
place in the Grampians, the Lammermuirs, or the Cheviots ? 
Having thus stated the facts in the natural history of the sal- 
mon detailed in this Report, and the evils prevailing in our 
fisheries, it is time to advert to the changes in our fishing sys- 
tem which seem to be requisite. 
1. Close time. — The evidence contained in this Report de- 
monstrates the inexpediency of permitting the fishing-season in 
rivers to commence before the 1st of May. In April, the 
fry are descending in “ tens of thousands,” and must be de- 
stroyed by the coble-net in great quantities, if used at all. The 
size of the mesh cannot prevent this destruction, since it becomes 
oblique while drawing on shore, and the net passes into folds. 
But the fry are not the only sulferers. The helts are likewise 
cfiptured ; and as the females usually descend at this period, 
their death must be unavoidable. Even in May, both fry and 
kelts may be destroyed, but the quantity would bear but a small 
