DECLINE OF SALMON.

The Fishery Commissioners of Ireland have reported to the Lord-Lieutenant that the salmon fisheries in 1860 were not so productive as in the preceding year, though the money value of the salmon captured probably exceeded that of many years past, and that there is reason to fear that under the temptation of the high price which this fish has attained in the market there has been a degree of over-capture which must eventually prove detrimental to the general interests. The number of fixed engines in the tideways, &c., on the seacoast has increased within seven years from 270 to 386. This mode of capture has now extended to an abuse, but, as it has been legalized by the legislature, all that the commissioners can do is to adopt as short an open season as the circumstances of each district or river require, and to enforce a strict observance of the close season. Much damage is done at milldams and factories by the salmon being tempted into the rapid current and killed by the wheels, but it is thought that means may be adopted for inducing the fish to follow the course of the river without injuring the working power of the wheel. The erection of fish-passes over weirs is found of very great service in affording the fish a free passage up to the spawning beds. The weirs are very injurious to navigation.-London Times, August, 1861.

CURIOUS JAPANESE DOCUMENTS.

The Consul at Hakodadi, Japan, has forwarded to the State Department the original Japanese vouchers, with the translations, for the expenditures made on behalf of the Consulate. They are very voluminous, considering the small amount of matter contained in them. One is a bill presented by Mr. Goo-so-Go-YO-YAU-KAS-KE-Whoever he may be-of Chig-gah-si-ma, Hakodadi, for sixty-two bundles of charcoal and two hundred and twenty sticks of firewood, furnished to sailors. The aggregate cost thereof, in Japanese currency, reaches the portentous figure of 48,550. Reduced to United States currency, the amount is $12 14. The bill, with signature and seal, fills three pages of Japanese paper.

FRANCE AND AMERICA.

The following statement appears in the Proprieté Industrielle of the 6th of June:

66

Seriously occupied with the consequences which may result to French commerce, navigation and industry from the hostile disposition manifested by the two fractions of the American Union, the Chamber of Commerce of Havre wrote to the Minister of Agriculture, Commerce and Public Works, on the 4th of May, to testify its fears and to express the hope that measures will be taken by the government to protect the French interests which may be affected. It has just received the following reply from the ministers, to which it hastens to give publicity:

"Paris, May 23, 1861. "Gentlemen,-You have done me the honor to communicate with me, on the 4th of this month, respecting the hostilities commenced

between the two fractions (deux fractions) of the former American Union, and of the first measures which have been the consequence of it. Finally, you express the wish that efficient steps shall be taken by the imperial government to secure the important interests of French commerce in those regions. As you have supposed, these interests are the object of my whole solicitude. I have placed myself in communication with my two colleagues, the ministers of foreign affairs, of the navy and of the colonies, and such measures have been taken that, in transactions with the United States, French commerce will receive no injury.

"Receive, &c.,

E. ROUHER.'"

A letter from Paris says: "You are aware that the French government, every year, publishes a large volume of statistics relative to trade and commerce. That of the present year has just appeared, and I shall have occasion hereafter to notice its principal features. For the present I may state that it shows that the actual value of all sorts of merchandise imported into France for consumption, in the year 1860, was 1,897,300,000f.; (£75,892,000;) in 1859 they were 1,640,700,000f.; and in 1858 they were 1,562,800,000f.; whilst the actual value of French articles exported, in 1860, was 2,271,100,000f.; (£90,844,000;) in 1859, 2,266,400,000f.; in 1858, 1,887,300,000f. In these items the precious metals are not included."

OPENING OF THE SCINDE RAILWAY.

(From the Kurrachee Herald.)

On the morning of the 13th May the first public train for passengers and goods ran from either terminus of the line, the crowd of passengers at the Kurrachee terminus being enormous. Since then, great numbers of passengers were being conveyed daily; the quantity of goods delivered by native traders for carriage, tax to the utmost the resources of the railway, one firm alone offering to enter into an arrangement for the conveyance of 140 tons per diem.

Sir BARTLE FRERE, on the 29th April, 1858, turned the first sod of the Scinde Railway, and, notwithstanding engineering and other difficulties, in little more than three years thereafter his successor has declared the line to be open for public traffic. The Scinde Railway is 114 miles in length, and is the first complete railway opened in India, and there appears every prospect of its being the first having its capital account closed, and paying a dividend on the capital expended on its construction. The commissioner in Scinde has alluded in terms of commendation to the excellence of the arrangements of the administrators of the railway in India, Messrs. NEVILLE, WARREN and JOHN BRUNTON; above all, calling attention to the fact that the workmen employed by the company upon the line, drawn from Scinde, Beloochistan, Bhawulpoor, the Deccan, Cutch, and from the confines of Persia and China, had all so conducted themselves that neither feuds or disturbances had ever reached the ears of the authorities. The most extensive engineering works on the line are two viaducts. The Mulleer viaduct is composed of WARREN's patent iron girders, of 80 feet span, resting on stone piers, and is 1,860 feet in length. The Bahrun viaduct is built of hard, white, durable stone, found

on the spot, has thirty arches of 45 feet span, and is 1,782 feet long. This viaduct is described to be as fine a piece of masonry as can be seen in any part of the world, and has been executed by native contractors, chiefly Cutchees. The stations on the line are Kurrachee, Landi, Dorbajee, Joongshaie, Jeempeer and Kotree. Kotree, on the Indus, the port of Hydrabad, and the upper terminus of the railway, is vastly increasing in importance, from its steamers and railway, and from the establishment, by Europeans, of extensive saltpetre and other manufactories. Joongshaie, the mid-station of the line, possesses many local advantages, and is about twenty miles from the ancient town of Tatta, on the Indus. This station is evidently destined to be the nucleus of an active and enterprising community; the future town is being laid out, and building sites allotted. The Parsee and other native traders resident at Tatta have proposed to raise funds for a cheap railway or tram-road from thence to Joongshaie, and a considerable local traffic from the latter to Kurrachee has commenced.

Fully to appreciate the importance of the increase in the trade of the port of Kurrachee, it is necessary to call attention to the rapid and steady increase of the trade from the date of the conquest of Scinde, as shown in the following tabular statements, compiled respectively by the commissioner in Scinde and the Chamber of Commerce at Kurrachee. A direct trade is established between Kurrachee and London, Liverpool, Glasgow, Havre, Marseilles, the Mauritius, Calcutta, Bombay and the Persian Gulf.

Table of Imports and Exports of Kurrachee, prepared by the Commissioner in Scinde for the Government of Bombay.

The advices from Dundee are more cheering, the home demand for linens having improved, and most manufacturers being now fully employed. Some mills which were on short time are now again in full work. Flax is firm, and a considerable business has been done in St. Petersburg and Riga, at higher rates. The shipments of jute from Calcutta, from the 1st of October to the end of May, were 273,100 bales, against 224,400 bales in the corresponding period of 1859-60. The demand for yarns is well maintained, and, altogether, affairs at Dundee

have been looking up of late. There has been rather more inquiry for wools during the past week, but quotations have exhibited little if any change, buyers still continuing cautious in their purchases. The last official returns, published with regard to the Scotch banks of issue, show an average weekly circulation of £4,284,782, being a decrease of £249,027, as compared with the previous month, and an excess of £1,535,511 over the fixed issue. The amount of bullion held by the banks was £2,591,610, being a decrease of £77,141, as compared with the preceding return. The Glasgow Gas Light and City and Suburban Gas Companies have just declared dividends, at the rate of 10 per cent. per annum. The movement of goods of all kinds, foreign and coastwise, at the port of Glasgow, amounted, in the last twelve months, to 1,366,327 tons, as compared with 1,192,475 tons in the preceding year, showing the gratifying increase of 173,852 tons, and that, too, while commercial affairs have in other quarters exhibited considerable depression.—Times.

TRADE WITH TURKEY.

A despatch from Her Majesty's Consul at Gallipoli to the Lords of the Committee of the Board of Trade, of which a copy has been transmitted to LLOYD'S, announces that a weekly line of steam communication, under the English flag, has been commenced between Constantinople and Tenedos, calling at Rodosti, Gallipoli, and the intermediate villages on the coast of the Dardanelles, returning to Constantinople by the same route, completing the whole voyage in a week. Independently of the facilities given by this new enterprise to local commerce, it has operated in augmenting the export trade from Roumelia to the United Kingdom. In the absence of good roads in the interior, the development of the coasting trade by means of steamers, it is observed, is greatly conducive to the interests of British commerce; to importers of produce by enabling them to lay down the articles in which they trade at a cheaper rate in England; to exporters of manufactures, by facilitating the distribution, and thus augmenting the demand for their goods; to shippers, by facilitating both the export and import trade of Great Britain, and thus creating a greater demand for freights to and from the Turkish coast.

TRADE AND PRODUCTS OF SIAM.

A series of reports received from our Consuls on the trade of foreign countries has been issued by the Board of Trade, with a promise that they shall in future be published more speedily; this may easily be, for the present series relates to the year 1858. The longest report is from Sir R. SCHOMBURG, British Consul at Siam. He states that a rapid development of the commercial resources of Siam has taken place since our treaty, negotiated in 1855, came into operation; but the Siamese government do not as yet appreciate the great advantages of a free commerce, and fear it may be favorable to foreigners and disadvantageous to themselves. Their principal export is of rice to China, and next sugar, of which ten times the present quantity might be produced if there were sufficient labor to be had; but the extraction of the juice of the cane

and its manufacture into sugar are carried on without any of the modern improvements for acquiring the largest possible quantity from the cane and a superior quality of sugar. The alluvial districts might produce as fine cotton as the United States, but there is a scarcity of laborers, and it is bulky for transport in canoes down the river. Her Majesty's government included among the presents forwarded to the sovereigns of Siam, a hydraulic press to compress cotton into bales. Coffee grows luxuriantly, and is of a superior description; it might be cultivated to an unlimited extent. A number of woods, the produce of the forests of Siam, may become of importance. The teak wood is considered the strongest and most durable timber of India, or perhaps of the world, only the greenheart of Guiana vying with it; but it had become scarce, and the supply had almost ceased. The takieng might perhaps rival it in size and quality, if examined more closely. Sir R. SCHOMBURG Saw, at the building sheds of the first king, a log of this wood, which was being prepared for the construction of a war-canoe, measuring 135 feet, perfectly sound and without a flaw. It possesses the property of being easily bent by artificial means. There are many ornamental woods, the color and suitableness to receive a high polish of which would render them valuable articles of export. A beautiful dye, of a brilliant color, is prepared from the heart of the jack-tree, which might also become of importance. Sir R. SCHOMBURG had seen silk cloth manufactured in Siam, of a green color, with much more lustre than sap green; this green dye, he was told, was extracted from a vegetable substance, procured in the forests of the interior. There is said to be a varnish obtained by incision from a tree, probably the theet, on which neither the sun nor rain has influence, and hence it is employed for securing the gilding of idols; it might be advantageously employed for gilding monuments and ornaments which are exposed to the influence of the atmosphere. The balsamic resins of Siam also deserve attention. The betel nut is extensively cultivated, to be used as a stimulant; and so is hemp, for the sake of its intoxicating and narcotic qualities, it being used in the preparation of "guncha," which has the same effects as opium; but a considerable quantity of opium, of inferior quality, is produced in the tributary provinces of Siam, on the China border. Elephants abound in the interior of Siam. The hides are sent to China, where, having undergone a process similar to that of gelatine, they are considered a delicacy. The horns of the rhinoceros are said to possess medicinal virtues. The Chinese likewise attach fanciful virtues, medicinal and invigorating, to the bones of tigers and crocodiles, and the hairy-covered young horns of the deer.

TRADE WITH FRANCE UNDER THE NEW TREATY.

The railway companies appear to be endeavoring to provide adequate accommodation for the commerce arising out of the Anglo-French treaty. Already the South-Eastern Company and their allies, the administrators of the Chemin de Fer du Nord of France, have made arrangements for an expansion of their system of through traffic by passenger-train and grande vitesse organized since the treaty. Further facilities are about to be introduced, which will initiate almost a new era in the transport of parcels and merchandise between the two countries. The through rates