45 
failure had become known to Government ; for special Commis- 
sioners were in that year appointed to inquire into the matter, and 
report on “the effect of recent legislation on the Salmon Fisheries 
in Scotland.” Lord Aberdare, who was then Home Secretary, 
directed the attention of the Commissioners to various points, and 
among them the following :— 
“As to local fishery management ; how far are District Boards 
in operation, and whether any alteration in their constitution 
is desirable 2’? 
The two Commissioners appointed to make this inquiry were 
the late Dr. Frank Buckland, and Mr. Archibald Young, the present 
Fishery Inspector for Scotland. 
They state in their official Report, that,to enable them to obtain 
the requisite information, they sent to District Boards and to pro- 
prietors, as well as to tacksmen of salmon fisheries, circulars con- 
taining thirty-six queries, to most of which answers were received. 
The Commissioners say that they afterwards personally inspected 
the principal salmon rivers in Scotland, forty-six in number, and 
had personal meetings with twenty-two District Boards, and with 
a number of landed proprietors interested in the fisheries. 
On the point above referred to, the Report bears, that whilst 
the number of Fishery Districts designated by the Commissioners 
under the Acts of 1862 and 1868 was 105, “at this moment there 
are not above 30 District Boards constituted and working !” 
The Commissioners in their Report suggest, as a cause for this 
failure of the scheme of Fishery Boards, ‘the smallness of many 
of the districts, and the poverty of the fishings ;” explaining this by 
adding, that “such comparatively trifling streams as the Alness, 
Armadale, Aylort (and ten others named), and many others, have 
each been formed into a separate district.” 
The Commissioners do not point out how “the smallness” of a 
district, and the “ poverty of the fishings ” in that district, prevented 
the formation of a Board. But it is presumed, what they mean 
is, that when the rent or value of the fishings in any particular 
river is so small, that no reasonable rate of assessment would be 
sufficient to pay the expense of a Board (with a clerk to record 
proceedings and levy assessments, as also to pay watchers and 
