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