SALMON— SCOTCH FISHERY LAWS. , 131 



lature, abundant proofs are stOl extant ; and although we have no statistics to 

 fall back upon, it has been recorded that pickled Scotch salmon was exported 

 to Plandei's and to Franco, and that it formed a considerable trade so early as 

 1380. About 1220 it was ordained that from Saturday niglit to Monday morning 

 it should be obligatory to leave a free jDassage for salmon in the various rivers, 

 and which was styled the " Saturday's sto]ipe." Alexander I. enacted at Perth, 

 " that the streame of the water sal be in all parts swa free, that ane swine of the 

 age of three yeares, well fed, may turn himself within the stream round about, 

 swa that his snowt nor taill sal not touch tlie bank of the water." Slayers of 

 raid fish or smolts of salmonde the third time were to be punished with death, and 

 " sie like he qua commands the famine to be done." 



The annual close time for salmon netting in Scotland from 1424 to 1828 was 

 lOJ' days. At the latter date it was extended to 139 days, and in 1862 168 days, 

 and the weekly close time from twenty-four to thirty-six hours. 



By an Act of the Scottish Parliament, passed in the time of James I., in 1424, 

 c. 25, it was forbidden that any salmon be slain from the Feast of the Assumption 

 of our Lady until the Feast of St. Andrew in winter. The dates of these feast 

 days being corrected according to the new style, the close time enacted by this 

 Act of 1424 was from August 16th until November 30th (n.s.). 



An Act was passed by James VI. of Scotland, a.d. 1606, against the people 

 polluting lochs and running streams in Scotland, on the ground " that the laying 

 of lint in lochs and bui-nes is not only hurtful to all fishes bred within the same, 

 and bestial that drink thereof, but also the hail waters of the said lochs and burnes 

 thereby being infected, is made altogether unprofitable for the use of man, and 

 very noisome to all the people dwelling there about, therefore statutes and ordains 

 that no person or persons in times coming lay in lochs and running burnes any 

 green lint, under the pain of forty shillings, toties quotics, for ilk time they 

 shall contravene ; and also confiscation of the lint to be applied to the poor of the 

 parish within which the said lochs and burnes lies." 



An Act was passed in the reign of James VII., on May 30th, 1685. " Item : 

 that all millers that slay smoults or trout with creels or any other engine, or any 

 who dams or laves shall be punishable as slayers of red fish, conform to the (37) 

 Act of Parliament, 6 King James III., and where the transgressor has no means 

 they are appointed to be put in prison, irons, or stocks for the space of one month, 

 npon their own expenses ; and if they have it not of their own, to be fed on bread- 

 and-water, conform to the 89th Act of Parliament, 6 King James VI." 



In 1828 Act of 9 George IV., c. 39, commonly known as the " Home Drummoiid 

 Act," was made law. In it the annual close time was altered,* that no salmon, 

 grilse, sea trout, nor other fish of the salmonf kind bo taken in or from any rivei', 

 stream, lake, water, or estuary whatsoever or any part of the sea coast between 

 September 14fch (instead of August 16th) and February 1st. (This Act did not 

 apply to the Solway, Tweed, or Tay.) This taking ofl' a month at the commence- 

 ment of the season was found to be very injui-ious to the fisheries. J A man having 

 been prosecuted for illegally taking one of the .salmon tribe, the presiding judge 

 found him guilty of killing " whitlings," fish in the grilse stage of the sea trout, 

 but declined to convict, as he could not find the fish referred to in the statute. A 



* Prior to the passing of this Act, Mr. Little gave evidence before the Parliamentary Committee 

 in 1824 (p. 114) that " the law then allowed the fishing to commence on St. Andrew's Day (Nov. 

 30th) which was far too early, and permitted fishing to continue tUl August IGth." He also 

 observed, " I think, speaking of the habits of the fish, that the seasons are later than they have 

 been when the old laws were made." 



t In the Act of Charles II., 1081, "Anent the Sahnond fishing in the waters of the Nith " 

 the term Salmond is alone employed. In Act 3 of George III., 1790, for regulating and 

 improving the salmon fishery of the river Nith, mention is made of grilse, salmon, trout, sea- 

 trout or herling. 



J Criticizing a late Salmon Act, Fraser {Salmon, 1833) remarked, " The new Act has added 28 

 days to the lawful period formerly allowed the fisherman, and, though the present age is indeed 

 an age of wonders and discoveries, it could scarcely be believed that by adding 28 days to the 

 season for killing tire breeders of any species the number could be increased. Yet this is exactly 

 what has been attempted by the framers of the Act " (p. 31). 



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