[5] THE FISHERIES OF SCOTLAND, 233 



ill counectiou with the fishings on the Solway and elsewhere. Not only, 

 therefore, do fixed engines diminish the nninber of fish which reach the 

 rivers, but they diminish the total annual number of fish caught, and 

 the statistics of the present day bear out, on the average, those just 

 referred to in this conclusion, though of course there are also other 

 causes at work, and considerable fluctuations. It is undoubtedly the 

 case that fish taken in the sea are in superior condition to those caught 

 in fresh water, but of what avail is that if we take them in such num- 

 bers that there will soon be no more left to be caught? In some places 

 on the coast no other mode of fishing is properly available except fixed 

 nets, but the same may be said of the rivers, and yet fixed engines have 

 been abolished there without compensation. The assertion that no 

 other mode can be followed with profit is subject to qualification — it 

 should be with so much profit — seeing that the capital is also encroached 

 upon to a greater or less degree. Besides, from the point of view of 

 the public interest, these stake and bag nets are objectionable on ac- 

 count of the exj)eDse involved in working them, which considerably 

 increases the price of the fish to the buyers. 1 have seen various esti- 

 mates of the difference of cost of working stake-nets and net and coble, 

 and it is in all cases very marked. 



Many exhaustive inquiries have been instituted by Parliament on this 

 subject, and the almost invariable result has been that commissions and 

 committees have recommended that fixed engines should be entirely 

 suppressed, and accordingly suppressed they have been in England, 

 and in Ireland at least checked and strictly regulated. But if it should 

 be deemed inadvisable to put them down altogether in Scotland, they can 

 and ought at least to be placed under strict regulations, and adequate 

 measures taken to insure that these regulations are carried out to the 

 letter, and in this view the suggestions contained in the Special Com- 

 missioners' Eeport of 1871 are admirable and should be adopted. The 

 distance from the mouths of rivers, however, recommended by the com- 

 missioners, might, with advantage, be extended in most cases to from 

 1 mile to 3 miles, according to the configuration of the coast; stake-nets 

 should in no case be allowed to extend further than from high to low 

 water mark, and bag-nets, in addition to being restricted to steep, rocky 

 coasts, and not allowed to be joined to stake-nets, should not be i)er. 

 mitted within 3 miles of the mouth of any river. This is the law in 

 Ireland as to stake and bag nets. Very severe penalties should be en- 

 acted for breach of weekly or annual close-time, as there is reason to be- 

 lieve that in many cases at present the law is simply ignored, and if any 

 complaint is made, stress of weather or absence of employes is pleaded. 

 It has been suggested that in any case where stress of weather pre- 

 vents the due observance of the weekly close- time, the owners or tacks- 

 men of the nets should be bound to report the matter to the chief 

 constable of the county, or other official, and satisfy him that the nets 

 were closed for fishing for an equal period when the weather allowed it; 



