INTRODUCTORY xix 



merits in a case of this kind. These associations are 

 usually, it is true, concerned very largely in the pre- 

 servation of good salmon angling. But it is to be 

 borne in mind that this very preservation of good 

 angling plays a most important part in maintaining 

 an adequate breeding stock of fish. The number of 

 fish captured by rod, although in some districts it is 

 very considerable, does not seriously reduce a river's 

 stock as indiscriminate netting does. The most 

 exhaustive inquiry into the welfare of our salmon 

 fisheries conducted by the Elgin Commission and 

 reported upon in 1902 resulted in, inter alia, a most 

 important recommendation in favour of reducing 

 netting in narrow waters where fish congregate after 

 leaving the sea. It was decided that there exists 

 in every river a point above which it is advisable 

 that no netting of any kind be carried on, and that 

 the effort should be to allow a proportion of every 

 run of fish entering a river to ascend to the unnetted 

 waters. 



The increased value of salmon angling makes it 

 possible, moreover, to compensate most fully those 

 who may be required to cease netting, and without 

 any hesitation it may be said that the result of action 

 of this kind has already proved most satisfactory to 

 all concerned. The Aberdeenshire Dee is a con- 

 spicuous example. The annual value of the salmon 

 fishing of the district has risen from 7000 to 

 19,000, and the Aberdeen Harbour Commissioners, 

 a body possessed of valuable salmon fisheries on the 

 coast and in the mouth of the river, and who fish 

 for commercial purposes alone, voluntarily subscribe 



