The attempt which is now making to amend the laws relating to the
Salmon fisheries, appears to run such a great risk of failure,
from the opposition of interested persons, that I think a short
sketch of the defects of the present laws and their effects on the
breed of fish, and a comparison of them with the proposed
amendment, may be interesting to some of your readers, and may,
perhaps, induce some influential gentlemen to throw their
influence into the right scale, in the approaching discussion on
this subject.
The Salmon fisheries in former times appear to have supplied food
for a large portion of the people, as there are still traditions
current on the banks of various rivers in the north, that the
indentures of apprenticeship always stipulated that the apprentice
should not be compelled to eat Salmon more frequently than three
days a week, and however exaggerated this story may appear at the
present day, I hope to succeed in showing that it is neither
improbable that it has been so, nor impossible that it may be so
again,--if good laws are made for their protection, and these laws
are properly enforced. At present there is no doubt the fisheries
are rapidly declining, and in some rivers which used to have a
good many Salmon in them, and which used to swarm with Smolts (or
fry) in the spring within my remembrance, they are now rarely
seen. To show their scarcity I may mention a circumstance which
occurred in the Wharfe, which was formerly one of the finest
rivers in Yorkshire for Salmon. A few years ago a pair of Salmon
were seen on a spawning bed in the Wharfe, about forty miles from
its mouth. This became known at the anglers' club, and it was
deemed so important to preserve them, that the club divided
themselves into three or four watches, and guarded the spawning
bed night and day, whilst the fish were spawning, and this
spawning lasted about a week.
Here in the Ribble the Salmon fisheries are not quite so near
extinction (though they are rapidly progressing in that
direction), for although we are very seldom allowed to see or
catch fish in seasonable condition, a good many come up the river
to spawn, though very few of them ever do so, and very few of
those that do ever reach the sea again. The reason is obvious, no
one here has any interest in preserving the spawning fish, and
they are openly killed by the poachers, who never dream of being
prosecuted for it. I am credibly informed that in a stream not
five hundred yards from where I write, sixty spawning fish were
killed last winter. Some years ago one gang of poachers killed
three hundred Salmon on the spawning beds in one season, and sold
potted Salmon roe (which is a most destructive bait for Trout) to
the value of L20.
In the Lune the proprietors of the fisheries near Lancaster sent
men to protect the spawning fish in the streams above; but these
men were warned off by the landed proprietors, who said, If you
catch all the good fish you must at least allow us to catch the
bad ones. In the Tweed and its tributaries it used to be quite as
bad (what the new Scotch law has done I do not know), but a
poacher who gave evidence before the Committee of the House of
Commons in 1825 said that he had assisted to take four hundred
Salmon at one haul in close time in the Tweed.
Sir Walter Scott's vivid description of burning the water, which
occurs in "Guy Mannering," shows that he knew how to kill Salmon
in close time. In fact, his account, and that of Hogg (the Ettrick
Shepherd), show that both were regular black fishers.
There are various devices for killing the fish in close time: they
are speared, netted, and hooked on the spawning beds, and when the
rivers get low, gangs of idle fellows range up and down on the
banks, stoning and beating the water by poles, or, what is more
effective still, a large bone, or horse's skull, and by fastening
a cord to it, one end of which is passed to each side of the
river, they draw this skull up and down in the pools where they
know there are Salmon, and the fish are so foolish and timid, that
they thrust their heads under any stone or cover they can find,
and are taken without trouble; it being common enough in such
cases to slip a noose over the tail, then tightening it, and the
fish is hauled out immediately.
Then again, gentlemen who want to have the reputation of being
skilful anglers, employ their game-keepers to find the Kippers
(Scottice Kelts) or spawned fish in the pools, which is a very
easy matter in low water, and dropping a hook baited with a lob
worm before their noses, it is greedily taken, and the poor fish
(which are unfit for food) are caught. It is then trumpeted forth
to the angling world that Mr. A. B. has had splendid sport--he has
caught a dozen Salmon with the rod in a single day, meaning it to
be understood that these fish have been caught with the fly. I by
no means uphold these practices, neither do I think them very
deserving of censure in the present state of the law, for all the
good fish are taken near the mouths of the rivers.
This leads me to consider the defects of the present law, which is
by no means adapted to protect and increase the breed of Salmon.
In the first place, the close time is too short. It commences in
the Ribble nominally (for in reality the fish are openly killed
all the year through) on the 15th September, and ends on the 31st
of December; whereas it ought to extend to the end of April, for
the following reasons. A very large proportion of the fish are
spawning in January and February, and I have even seen a spawning
fish as late as the 3rd of April. In the evidence given before the
House of Commons in 1825, it was proved by a fisherman from the
Tweed, that in March for one clean fish that was caught there were
ten caught that were not so, as they were either fish that had not
spawned, or Kelts, that is, fish which have finished spawning but
have not returned to the sea, and are then flabby, unwholesome,
and unfit for food. A very large proportion of these Kippers or
Kelts do not go to the sea until April, and not then without there
is a fresh in the river, for, like the Smolts, they seem disposed
to remain in the rivers until they can avail themselves of the
assistance of a flood, to enable them more easily to reach the
sea.
Another defect in the present law is that it fails to secure a
supply of good fish to the upper proprietors. There are no
provisions in it (or they are not enforced) for giving the fish a
free passage, no prohibition of nets, traps, or devices for
stopping them in their progress up the rivers. No daily or weekly
close time, but everywhere there is so short-sighted a selfishness,
that it is completely realizing the fable of the man who killed the
goose which laid the golden egg. The fisheries are declining so
rapidly, that unless something is done, and done quickly, the breed
of Salmon will be extinct in the rivers in this neighbourhood.
Again, there is no power to appoint or pay conservators, and
without their assistance there is no chance of preserving Salmon
in the spawning beds. Game-keepers are most certainly not to be
depended upon.
In pointing out the defects of the present laws I have, in fact,
given an opinion how they should be remedied. I would extend the
close time from the end of September to the end of April. I would
establish a daily close time, allowing no net, device, or engine
to be employed in taking Salmon between sunset and sunrise above
tideway in any river; and below, I would only allow nets to be set
for twelve hours per diem. I would appoint conservators, whom I
would pay by a tax on the fisheries on the whole course of the
river, which tax should be determined by a valuation of the
fisheries, and paid accordingly. I would fine every one who sold,
used, or had in his possession any potted or prepared Salmon roe
for the purpose of angling, and I would give conservators the
power of examining all mill goits and races, for the purpose of
seeing that no unfair practices were resorted to for the taking of
Salmon or Salmon fry; and I would give the upper proprietors the
power of making any alterations in mill weirs and dams which did
not impair their stability or the efficiency of the water power.
If some such enactments as these were made and properly enforced,
there is no doubt Salmon would swarm in every river, for their
fecundity is such, that a very few Salmon spawning in a river
under favourable circumstances stock it abundantly with Smolts. A
large Salmon having not less than 25,000 eggs in it, how soon,
with a little forbearance and care, would every river swarm with
this delicious fish, even to such a degree as to be a cheap food
for the poor! But to obtain such results it must be made the
interest of every person to protect them.
In reading over the evidence on the Salmon fisheries, which was
given before the House of Commons in 1825, I was exceedingly
amused by the reasons given by the tenants of some of the
fisheries in Scotland why there should be no weekly close time,
and the shifts and evasions practiced by others. One said he paid
L7,000 a year rent to the Duke of Gordon for his fishery, and if
one day in the week were allowed for close time he would lose
L1,000 a year. Another said he kept the close time, but he would
allow nobody to go and see whether he kept the free gap open or
not. Another proved that he kept open the free passage, but it was
also proved that he had a crocodile placed in the gap, painted
with very glaring colours, in order to frighten back any fish that
attempted to pass. Another sent his boats to break down the stake
nets which were set in the estuary, but acknowledged that he kept
his own nets set across the river day and night. There would be no
difficulty in stocking every suitable river in the kingdom with
Salmon, either by putting into them a few pairs of breeding fish,
or by artificially fecundating the eggs, and placing them in
artificial spawning beds. It is a plan I have frequently adopted,
and sometimes successfully; but in other experiments I have
failed, from the difficulty of choosing a suitable locality in the
river. If too rapid a stream was chosen, the eggs and gravel were
all washed away; and if too calm and still a place was selected,
the gravel was filled up with sand and mud, and the eggs rotted
instead of hatching. I am even of opinion that where there is
already a breed of Salmon fry in a river, it is not absolutely
necessary that any male Salmon should come up the river in the
spawning season, the male Par, or Penks, as we call them in the
Ribble, being sufficient to fecundate the eggs. If this is
doubted, I would ask how it happens that in the autumn they have
fluid milt in them? for as nature makes no unnecessary provisions,
for what purpose is this, if not to provide for the possibility of
a female Salmon coming alone? These Pars swarm on the Salmon
spawning beds.
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