136 ABSTRACT OF EVIDENCE 



of mill-dam dykes near the sea ; one mill-dam dyke 

 near the sea will do more injury than all the stake- 

 nets in the kingdom ; salmon ebb and flow with the 

 reflux of the tide ; stake-nets to be carried high 

 up the river and extended beyond low water must 

 be injurious. 



Mr. Charles Kerr. — Produced a copy of the 

 process of declarator between the Duke of Athol 

 and Maull ; a stake-net has a small mesh, which is 

 fixed by stakes in the river, about forty or fifty 

 yards from high water mark ; that this is a line 

 or bag net, the mouth of which looks up the river ; 

 that the spirlings are caught when the tide ebbs by 

 being caught in it, and some few by hanging in 

 the meshes ; the object was to prove that no fry 

 was injured by the stake-nets ; the result of a long 

 enquiry for the purpose of proving that the stake- 

 nets were not injurious to the fry. 



Mr. Steward Sheppard. — A very great number 

 of grampuses, porpoises, and seals in the Tay, 

 which destroy immense numbers of salmon ; much 



NOTES. 



Mr. Kerr's evidence only applies to the stake-nets ; 



Mr. Steward Sheppard's chiefly to the monsters of the 

 deep. But if the obvious and reasonable suggestions be- 

 fore so often stated be carried into a law, there would be 

 salmon enough for the grampuses of the land) without 

 depriving those of the sea of their share. 



