The Tweed alone at one period gave to its proprietors an annual income of £20,000; but although the price of fish has greatly increased of late years, the rental fell at one time to about a fifth part of that sum, and the take of fish sank from 40,000 to 4000. Persons interested in the salmon have been watching very keenly during late years the effects of the legislation of 1857 and 1859 upon the Tweed fisheries, the rent of that river being now little more than a third of what it once was. The principal changes introduced by the two Tweed Acts of 1857 and 1859 may be shortly stated to be:—

1. The entire abolition of bag, stake, and other fixed nets of every description in the river, and the restriction and regulation of stake-nets on the sea-coast, and no net except the common sweep-net, rowed out and immediately drawn in again, has been allowed on the Tweed since 1857. 2. The entire prohibition of leistering. 3. A slight increase of the weekly close-time, and an increase of the annual close-time for nets by four weeks. 4. The permission of rod-fishing for an extended period, so as to interest proprietors to a greater degree in the protection of the river. And last, not least, the absolute prohibition of killing unclean or unseasonable fish at any time of the year, and an enactment that all such fish caught during the fishing season should be returned to the water.

Much curiosity has existed as to the results achieved by the Tweed Acts, the first really stringent code enforced on any British river; and although statistics in such matters, unless taken over very extended periods, are not to be too implicitly relied on, and much allowance must be made for the variations caused by weather and unfavourable seasons during so short a period as has elapsed, yet it is well worth while to ascertain what can be learned concerning this experiment. With this view I have consulted the very valuable and interesting series of tables which have been compiled and printed for private circulation by Alexander Robertson, Esq., one of the Tweed Commissioners, and a director of the Berwick Shipping Company. A brief reference to the figures in these tables shows at once whether or not there has been an improvement in the fishing. The total capture of salmon, grilse, and trout, in Tweed for the six years preceding 1857 was 50,209 salmon, 153,515 grilse, and 294,418 trout; making a yearly average of 8368 salmon, 25,586 grilse, and 49,069 trout. In the six years succeeding the Act—viz. 1858 to 1863—the total capture was 60,726 salmon, 124,182 grilse, and 175,538 trout; being an average of 10,121 salmon, 20,697 grilse, and 29,256 trout. These are improving figures, taking into account that the fishing season had been curtailed by a period of four weeks. The total rent of the river in 1857 was about £5000; it is now above £7500, and is on the rise.

The English salmon-fisheries, generally speaking, have been allowed to fall into so low a state that I fear it will be impossible to recruit them in a moderate period of time without foreign aid. Some of the rivers, indeed, are as nearly as possible salmonless. It is difficult to select an English river that will in all respects compare with the Tay, but the Severn produces the finest salmon of any of the English salmon rivers; and it is a noble stream, containing many kinds of fish, which afford great sport to the angler. If the river flowed in a direct course from its source to the sea, it would be eighty miles in length; as it is, by various windings, it flows for two hundred miles. It has many fine affluents, and in its course passes through some beautiful scenery. It rises in Wales, high up the eastern side of Plinlimmon, at a place in the moors called Maes Hafren, which gave at one time its title to the river, Hafren being its ancient name. After flowing through several counties it falls into the sea at Bristol Channel. Had the fisheries of the Severn been as free from obstacles and as well preserved as those on the river Tay, they would still have been of immense value, as it possesses some very fine breeding-grounds. The Severn could be speedily restored to its primary condition as one of our finest salmon streams; that is, if the various interests could be consolidated, and artificial breeding be extensively carried on for a few years. The Severn still possesses a tolerable stock of breeding-fish, which might be turned to good account in a way similar to those at Stormontfield on the Tay.

Mr. Tod Stoddart, who is an authority on the salmon question, and particularly on matters relating to angling, says that a river like the Tay or the Tweed requires 15,000 pairs of breeding-fish to keep it in stock, the average weight of the breeders to be ten pounds each. Proceeding on these data, and taking the period of growth of the fish as previously stated, it may be interesting if we inquire how soon a fine river like the Severn could be made a property. Allowing that there is at present a considerable stock of breeding fish in that river—say 10,000 pairs—and that for a period of two years these should be allowed a jubilee, the river during that time to be carefully watched; that plan alone would soon work a favourable change; but if supplemented by an extensive resort to artificial nurture and protection, in the course of three years the Severn would be, speaking roundly, a mine of fish wealth. A series of ponds capable of breeding 1,000,000 fish might, I think, be constructed for a sum of £2000; there ought of course to be two reception-ponds, so that a brood could be hatched annually. [See plan in “Fish Culture.”] Thus, in a year’s time, half a million of well-grown smolts would be thrown into the river from the ponds alone, a moiety of which in the course of ten weeks would be saleable grilse! Next year these would be doubled, and added to the quantity naturally bred would soon stock even a larger river than the Severn. There can be no doubt of the practicability of such a scheme. What has been achieved in Ireland and at Stormontfield can surely be accomplished in England. An ample return would be obtained for the capital sunk, and in all probability a large profit besides.

A recent report of the Inspectors of the English Fisheries embraces a summary of the condition of ninety rivers; and I can gather from it that considerable progress has already been made in arresting the decay of these valuable properties, and that there is every prospect of the best rivers being speedily repeopled with salmon to an extent that will secure them, under proper regulations, from again falling into so low a condition. A careful perusal of this report shows that fixed nets have been nearly abolished; that portions of rivers not hitherto accessible to fish have been made so, passes and gaps having been created by hundreds. Poachers have been caught and punished with great success; and, according to a review of the report in the Field, a journal which is well versed in fishery matters, “salmon have been seen in large quantities in places where they have not been seen these forty years.”

In reference to the Act for the regulation of the salmon-fisheries of England and Wales of 1861, and its supplement of 1865, a good deal can be said as to the increase of salmon, but it is perhaps best that Mr. Ffennell, one of the Commissioners, should be allowed to say it for himself. The increase in the productiveness of the English rivers then—and this is stated in the fourth annual report of the inspectors—“far exceeds the anticipations of those who were most sanguine in regard to the good results which might have been expected from the operation of the Act of 1861; and the zeal of many who from the first took an active part in administering the law has been greatly stimulated by the telling effects of their exertion; while others, who may have hesitated in the commencement from doubts of success, have been led on by the force of good example, as well as by the more powerful incentive arising from the many proofs so soon forthcoming that salmon can be abundantly produced in the rivers of England.”

As to the amendment or rider to the Act of 1861, which was passed in the present session (1865), its chief objects are to provide funds for the payment of the wages of water-bailiffs, and of other expenses connected with the due protection of the English salmon-fisheries, and for the appointment of a body of able and responsible persons to whom the duties of raising and expending such fund are to be entrusted. The first of these is attained by the annual licensing of rods, nets, and other engines used in the capture of salmon, at fixed sums, the proceeds of which licence-duties are to be expended (after the formation of a river or rivers into a fishery district by order of the Secretary of State) on the protection of the fisheries within that district only where such licence-duties are raised, and in that district only are the licences available for use; and the second, where a fishery district lies wholly in one county, by the magistrates of that county in quarter-sessions at once appointing a board of conservators for the district; but where a fishery district lies in several counties, such appointment will be made by committees of the various courts of quarter-sessions interested, under prescribed arrangements. In either case after the appointment, the board of conservators will be a body corporate, and have the entire control of the salmon-fisheries within their district. The Act also provides for the issuing of a special commission to inquire into the titles and rights of all “fixed engines” used in the capture of salmon throughout England and Wales. These devices have since the late improvement in our fisheries very much increased in number; but now such only may hereafter be employed as are proved to the satisfaction of the Commissioners to have been lawfully used in either of the years 1857, 1858, 1859, 1860, or 1861. There are also other useful and necessary provisions in the Act, affording protection to trout in the months of November, December, and January, when they spawn, fixing a minimum penalty for a second offence; requiring all salmon intended to be exported between the 3d September and 2d February to be entered with the proper officer of customs; and in other minor but important particulars amending the Act of 1861, with which the Act of 1865 is to be understood as incorporated. The associations on the Severn, the Usk, and the Yorkshire rivers have already taken up the Act, and intend applying, through the court of quarter-sessions at their next October sessions, for the formation of fishery districts, and the appointment of boards of conservators. It is anticipated that in the lower part of the Severn £600, on the Wye £400, and on the Usk £300, will be then derived from licences, and from the first year’s revenue of these respective boards; and it is to be hoped that all necessary preliminaries will be adjusted in time to permit the various boards of conservators to enter upon their duties with the commencement of the next open season.

As a guide to the productiveness in salmon of the different divisions of the three kingdoms, the following table may be taken. It was furnished by Messrs. Wm. Forbes Stuart and Co. of 104 Lower Thames Street, London, and shows the quantity of salmon (i.e. the number of boxes weighing one hundred and twelve pounds each) sent to London from 1850 to the end of the open fisheries of 1865:—

Scotch.Irish.Dutch.Norwegian.Welsh.
185013,9402,1351055472
185111,5934,14120321440
185213,0443,60217630620
185319,4855,052401120820
185423,1946,333345None.128
185518,1974,101227None.59
185615,4386,568685200
185718,6544,904622None.220
185821,5646,42997319499
185915,6304,855922None.260
186015,8703,80384940438
186112,3374,58284960442
186222,7967,84156887454
186324,2978,1831,227180663
186422,6038,3441,204837752
186519,0096,8581,4791069868
287,65187,73110,21840795135