56 
classes, has been so far acknowledged, and so far fulfilled for 
Scotland, that a Board many years ago was established in Edin- 
burgh for the “‘ encouragement and better regulation” of Herring 
Fisheries, by enforcing the provisions of various Acts, which fix 
an annual and weekly close-time, specify the size of the meshes of 
nets, and require registration of boats. The Act of Parliament 
also places at the service of that Board a gunboat, with a crew 
and an officer of the Navy, to assist the Board in the execution of 
its duties. In connection with this object, offices are provided in 
a Government building in Edinburgh, with a secretary, two clerks, 
two general superintendents, and upwards of thirty local inspectors. 
By establishing such a department, Government and Parliament 
have acknowledged the obligation to look after and regulate our 
Scotch Herring Fisheries. Are Salmon Fisheries not equally 
entitled to State protection? Of late years, Government and 
Parliament have been extending protection to other -wild animals 
of very inferior importance, such as crabs, mussels, oysters, sea- 
fowl, and land birds, fixing a close-time for each, imposing a 
penalty on offenders, and authorising the Procurator-fiscal to 
prosecute, at the public expense. Looking to these facts, why 
in the case of salmon should the State throw on individuals 
the duty and expense of prosecuting persons who violate the pro- 
visions which the State chooses to enact? Salmon, whether in the 
sea or in rivers, are no more private property than herrings. 
They are the property of the Crown, and no riparian proprietor, 
either on our rivers or on the sea-coast, can fish for salmon except 
he can show a grant or a lease from the Crown. But the Crown 
does not thereby divest itself of the obligation to preserve from 
extermination, what it has leased or what it keeps in its own 
hands in trust for the nation. 
On these grounds, it is hoped that Government and Parliament 
will feel it to be a duty to devise better means of protecting salmon 
in Scotland than at present exist ; and for this an opportunity is 
afforded by the fact of there being already in Edinburgh a Board 
of Fishery Commissioners, occupying apartments in a Government 
building, where there is sufficient space for an additional office 
applicable to Salmon Fisheries. 
