FUTURE SALMON LEGISLATION. 19 5 



that, cruives, besides being few, cannot be increased 

 either in number or efficiency, as no new charter author- 

 izing them where they do not now exist could be ob- 

 tained, and as the law tightly regulates their mode of 

 working ; while fixed nets are capable of great extension, 

 both as to number and as to length or reach. For in- 

 stance, a plan has lately been adopted by which, after a 

 stake-net has been carried out as far seaward as the 

 depth of the water or the nature of the ground will 

 permit, bag-nets (that is, nets of the same kind as 

 the others, Ijut fixed Ijy anchors instead of stakes) are 

 placed at the outer end in continuation, the whole some- 

 times being a mile in length, and not only forming a 

 barrier across more than the whole of " the run of the 

 fish," but also capturing many of that proportion of the 

 fish which, after striking the leader in-shore, do not go 

 into the trap of the stake-net, and would, but for the 

 bag -net beyond, escape for the time. Indeed, engines of 

 this kind being as yet but in their infancy in more senses 

 than one, it is impossible to foresee to what lengths or 

 into what new shapes they may grow; while cruives can- 

 not be, as they have not for centuries been, increased 

 either in number or efficiency, but on the contrary can 

 be, as they have been, greatly reduced, both as to their 

 obstructive and their destructive efiects. Nevertheless, 

 cruives are evils and excrescences, and their owners 

 would be great gainers by conceding, as all but two or 

 three of them are understood to be willing to do, that 

 they should be included in a measure al)olishing all 

 fixture fisheries, without distinction of sea or river, box 

 or net. 



