146 ABSTRACT OF EVIDENCE 



manufactories ; lime and other things will kill the 

 fry ; tanners, hatters, and those who cure sheep- 

 skins, putting them in lime, letting the refuse go 

 into little rivers, washing the filth from the skins, 

 steeping of flax, and gas wasting, are very injurious; 

 there ought to be an opening in dam-dykes for the 

 salmon to go up and the fry to come down. The 

 improvement of the fisheries would employ the 

 people ; great abundance of salmon in river Moy, 

 but no sea trout ; his opinion is, that they do not 

 return to the rivers above sixteen inches long, 

 but thinks that the salmon is of far more rapid 

 growth than is generally supposed. 



James Gillies. — - Salmon have much decreased, 

 from the brood not being protected, and from the 

 number of poachers in close time ; saw 250 in one 



NOTES. 



I too could garnish this tale of infamy with many illus- 

 trious cases ; but what has been admitted — what is not 

 denied — and what has been proved over and over again, 

 needs not further illustration ; 'tis a revolting subject alto- 

 gether; — nothing but poaching from one end of the king- 

 dom to the other. 



Just the same sort of work carried on in the north as in 

 Devonshire. 



Constables of every parish should be appointed conser- 

 vators, and a high premium should be offered for the ap- 

 prehension of poachers of every description. 



There certainly is a misapprehension, not only with the 

 committee but the witnesses, about grampusses and por- 

 poises. At page 103, the committee ask this question : " Do 



