SALMON IN 1873.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 259, 20 February 1874, Page 3

SALMON IN 1873.

We dnubt if the yield~of salmon during the fishing season of L 873 in English, Irish, "and fccotch waters has ever been exceeded in -the memory of the present generation. From almost every district we hear that, a remunerative capture has been made, while for many years past so extraordinary a number of salmon have not passed up to the spawning beds as this year since the nets were taken off and the' .annual close season commenced. To compute the exact number of salmon taken in the three kingdoms would be impossible owing to the difficulties which -are placed" in, the way of getting full or truthful returns from the lessees and others engaged in the working of the fisheries. The cial reports published annually by the .English and Irish inspectors severally give, indeed,' some returns as to the take of salmon in many districts. But this information, in the majority of cases, is either given very sparingly, or else withheld'altogether. So that' in estimating the produce of the different rivers ,we can only get at an approximate value of the whole. One of the English inspectors has, indeed, placed before us in'his-two-last | reports a carefully arranged calculation of the English fisheries based upon the re- ; turns furnished by the boards of conservators of some of the more important fishery districts. This calculation,"as far as it goes, is useful: Some two years back he estimated that the produce of the united rivers of England and Wales could not t have been of less value: than £90,000 ■ a year; while, the Irish inspectors some years since placed the value of the fisheries in that country at £40,000, or some thousands more than the estimated value placed on the Scotch fisheries. These figures are doubtless much below the veal , value of the fisheries of the three kingdoms ' and are brought forward merely with ■ the view of showing the vast commercial importance" of the salmon -fisheries. This year it is generally acknowledged, - even by the.net luen themselves, that there has ' been a most unusually productive .yield of "salmon, and if/householders in .London cannot claim to have benefitted as largely as they would wish, from an abundant supply of cheap salmon during the past have the satisfaction'of knowing 'that of late the price .of the fish,has shown a tendency to fall, which gives hopes that if the improvement in. the produce of our salmon rivers advances at the.same rate as it has during the last few" years we may shortly " benefit" - substantially from the development of the industry; and this, too, notwithstanding the formidable opposition which is presented by the combination at present existing ;between the 'principal salesmen in London-and ,takes r men in the country.—' Pall Mali Gazette.' ,