INTRODUCTORY xv 



erect engines which obstructed the ascent of salmon 

 and facilitated their capture in undue numbers. 

 The Scottish statutes of four hundred years ago 

 commonly put down practices which "destroy the 

 breed of fish, and hurt the commoun profit e of the 

 realme." From earliest times it has been considered 

 necessary to protect spawning fish by close seasons, 

 and to do this satisfactorily observation as to the 

 breeding season has been inevitable. Like the 

 crime of sheep-stealing, the crime of poaching 

 salmon in close time was punishable by death. In 

 an Act of the first Parliament of James I. (1424) we 

 find " Quha sa ever be convict of slauchter of 

 Salmonde in time forbidden be the law, he sail pay 

 fourtie shillings for the unlaw, and at the third time, 

 gif he be convict of sik trespasse, he sail tyne his 

 life, or then bye it." The transference from forty 

 shillings (Scots) to the death penalty seems rapid, 

 nor is any indication given as to what may be 

 regarded as the ultimate price of a poacher's life. 

 One thing seems clear, however : those early Scottish 

 legislators were determined to preserve the breed 

 of salmon. God bless their memory ! In more 

 recent times we have had not a few examples of 

 how easy it is to destroy the salmon of a district, 

 and how difficult it is to restore the breed. 



At once the most primitive and most deadly 

 method of catching fish which inhabit rivers is by 

 the erection of built barriers and enclosures. The 

 Australian blacks make dams and pools of branches 

 and stones, and drive the fish into them before floods 

 subside. The North American Indian has for long 



