188 STATUTE LAWS RELATING Tl> 



fish locks, which, contrary to all the laws rehearsed, 

 abound in every direction, are suffered to exist. 

 It is a question well worthy the attention of 

 the public, if ever they wish to have salmon cheap 

 and abundant, to ascertain by the soundest law 

 authorities, whether these fish traps can be sup- 

 ported or not. If an engine or device of this 

 description be legal, then another question arises, — 

 whether the bars of this engine or fish coop ought 

 not to be two inches and a half wide or broad? for 

 it seems quite irreconcileable not only to law but 

 to common sense, reason, and justice, that the 

 mesh of the net shall be required to be two inches 

 and a half broad, so as to permit all unsizeable fish 

 to escape, and, yet, that the mesh of the coop 

 shall be suffered to be but one inch and two 

 tenths, so as to catch every unsizeable fish that 

 comes within it. The coop is but a wooden net ; 

 the difference is a mere distinction of terms : both 

 are engines for catching salmon : the one is claimed 

 to be lawful and the other is prohibited : but no 

 one can deny, that if the wooden stationary net, or 

 coop, is allowed to stand, it ought to be regulated 

 by the same mesh as the moveable corded or twine 

 net : this is nothing but common justice as well as 

 reason. Then arises another question, — whether 

 these engines can be at all stationary or fixed, con- 

 trary to the 2 Hen. 6., and the case reported in 

 Coke, where the judges held, that engines and nets 

 were not to be fastened, but were to be drawn 

 by hand as fishermen usually draw their nets* 



