The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-11-22 00:00:00

WINTER SALMON SEASON.

The Times of Tuesday bad the following interesting article
on the "Winter Salmon Season" :

What is comsnonly called the "winter salmon
season" has commenced. During this period the sale
of salmon taken in our home waters is prohibited and
the supply is derived altogether from foreign rivers.
As yet only a few Dutch salmon have arrived at Bil-
lingsgate, and these were heavy fish, averaging about
301 b. each, and were in good condition. It is said
the prospects of a productive fishing season on Con-
tinental waters are particularly encouraging this
year, and we may look for increased arrivals
of salmon from Sweden, Norway, and Holland,
where "fresh run" salmon are found in more or less
abundance during the winter months. From the
Rhine come the great bulk of these winter fish. They
generally run large, and although not esteemed of as
good flavour as our home-bred salmon, are neverthe-
less excellent in quality, and, moreover, find a ready
sale at a high figure among the wealthier classes of
the community, by whom this trade is altogether sup-
ported.
The foreign salmon supply, although it represents
some thousands of pounds annually, can hardly be
looked upon as affecting in any very appreciable
manner the food supply of the country generally.
The fish are only received in comparatively small
numbers, and in no instance even when most plenti-
ful, does the price fall sufficiently low to come within
the reach of the poorer classes of the metropolis. Com-
paring the number of boxes of foreign salmon received
at Billingsgate during the past season with the number
received from our home waters during a corresponding
period, we find that whereas the former contri-
buted only 1,276 boxes, our Scotch, Irish, and English
rivers sent as many as 23,148 boxes. Dutch salmon
were particularly scarce in London last season, the
supply falling short by some 1,528 boxes of the number
received during the previous year, when the number
was 2,454. The poor fishing was attributed to the
severe winter, The rivers were ice-bound on many
occasions. Heavy floods also prevailed, and for several
days fishing was out of the question and netting opera-
tions were altogether suspended.
As we have said, the trade of importing Dutch
salmon into the English markets represents at present
a comparatively small business. It is, nevertheless,
rapidly increating, and is being further developed
each year, and doubtless in a short time hence will
become no small item in the business transacted by
the larger Billingsgate salesmen and West-end
fishmongers.
Many of these Continental waters are very prolific
fish farms. Salmon swarm in the estuaries and up
through the middle and higher waters, which abound
in streams admirably adapted for the successful hatch-
ing of eggs and the breeding of the young fish. The
principal commercial fisheries are situated in the
estuaries and lower waters, and there the work of
catching the salmon appears to be carried on in a very
thorough manner. About the mouth of the Rhine
and along the coast "fixed engines" of various dee.
criptions are said to bristle in considerable numbers;
draught nets also abound, and many of these latter
are now worked by steam, a mode of fishing which
renders them far more destructive than if plied in the
ordinary manner. So complete and thorough, indeed,
is the system adopted for fishing these foreign waters
that but a small proportion or the fish are able to
escape and reach the spawning beds. These of
hte years are said to have held a very poor com-
plement of breeding fish, a circumstance altogether
attributable to the free use of capturing engines in the
lower waters. We in England have had bitter expe-
rience of the evil results which follow a too excessive
system of fishing. The threatened annihilation of saline
safer, which was being speedily accomplished in many
of our rivers, was not arrested until Government took
the matter in hand and enforced stringent laws,
which prevented over fishing and fixed a certain time
during which salmon should not be killed, but be
rofaohtet unless
ohoeocheckDthue tchfodnfeeiorg
allowed unmolested to perpetuate their species. We
east a
himbrnaetetaksleanimg hmt ee dr i a
ot ef
salmon ie to
n their waters they will
very soon find the
yield of their
ng less valuable fisheries graoually falling off and becom-
i each year.

paiinnnstbaerarecionfotSiohneffiotelsdidont Monday
operative
strike
"hour. The men's wages would have been una.it:r7Al.f per
went out
ut
the present figure of Mt. a we.-k, as the masters offereCiutt
give four hours work extra to make up the loss to the men
"It would he felt as a distinct check to the general.
improvement of trade in this country were the wint,r to liet
in early and as severely es was threatened a day or two ago
At the close of last year pauperism in the unions, more.
eppecisl Y
1 those of the manufacturing districts, increased
alarmingly because of the hard frost and the consequent want
of employment. Building, agricultural and many other out-
door operations are checked by frost; the movement of
shipping to and from various northern ports is stopped; in-
land canal traffic is impeded, and the impediments in one
trade check activity In several others."—Trade and Finance
In Ftil HMI Goatee,