500 Dr KNOX on the Natural History of 



and other bait *, a very extensive practical fisherman affirms that stake-nets have no 

 chambers towards the ebb-flood, and one of the most extensive practical fishermen of 

 the north, also proprietor of many great salmon-fishings, was made by the Committee 

 to say and unsay, to assert and contradict, those assertions, nearly in every individual 

 passage, through an examination extending to many folio pages. When we reflect on 

 this, it surely cannot be wondered at that the Legislature viewed the Evidence and Re- 

 part as documents on which they could not place any reliance. 



Notwithstanding the number of documents and mass of evidence submitted to the 

 House of Commons by the Committee, I shall venture to offer it as my opinion that the 

 results are below criticism. I make this statement, I hope, without going out of my 

 way to look for materials for criticism ; there are many who, viewing the question of 

 the Salmon Fisheries as of a national and economical nature, might deem, through ig- 

 norance, the report and evidence before the House of Commons as valuable and import- 

 ant, and might wonder at my not having first submitted an analysis of these documents 

 to the Society as a basis for further observation, and a still more extended inquiry : this 

 analysis I have very carefully made twice, first, before I commenced the latter part of 

 these inquiries and since ; the conclusion come to is still the same, viz. that the persons 

 offering the testimony and evidence here, are, without any exception, incompetent to 

 the task ; the greater part being the evidence of individuals, to whom it would be im- 

 possible even to explain the care and precision, and extent of direct evidence, requisite 

 to arrive at a correct scientific conclusion. 



APPENDIX C. 



In 1830 a Natural History of the Salmon was published, by ALEXANDER FRASER, 

 salmon-curer and tacksman of Dochnaling, a copy of which work Sir JOHN SINCLAIR 

 had the kindness to present to me. I have thought it right thus to particularize Mr FRA- 

 SER'S work, not that it contains matter of any great value, but that throughout it is 

 written with great candour and good sense. Mr F. has had the most ample opportuni- 

 ties of observation, as being a most extensive practical salmon-fisher. A valuable table 

 of river-fishings is appended to the work. Mr FRASER in his preface, claims attention 

 from the public for his work, being " the result of more than forty years almost unin- 

 terrupted practice in salmon-fishing." His experience, however, I remark, is local, and 

 liable, therefore, to all the objections which lie against experience drawn from limited 

 observation. His remarks, " that practical men who have the best, and indeed the only, 

 opportunity of forming a correct judgment, are generally deficient in the power of express- 

 ing it, or are too actively engaged in business to trouble themselves about speculative 



' The term worm is usually applied to earth-worm, a sort of bait which will hardly be found in 

 the estuary of any river, and the other bait should have been characterised. A reference to Part II. 

 will shew that gregarious fishes do not take, indiscriminately, whatever bait they can catch ; and, as 

 the question of food determines the locality of the feeding-ground, and, this being determined, settles 

 all questions of proprietorship, it seems clear to me, that on the Committee discovering that not 

 one of the witnesses upon the salmon-fisheries knew a single positive fact as to the food of the salmon, 

 the most important of all the questions brought before them, and upon which every other hinged, the 

 investigation ought to have ceased there, and not resumed until that point was fairly settled by per- 

 sons competent for the task. 



