56 THE SALMON FISHERIES, 
end below the original level of the weir, it would be better 
than none at all. 
A point of law is involved here which may be briefly 
referred to. The heightening of a dam necessitates the 
construction of a pass “of such form and dimensions as the 
Secretary of State shall approve.” Unless such approval be 
obtained, and unless the fish-pass has “constantly running 
through it such a flow of water as will enable salmon to pass 
up and down it,” no person may fish, except with rod and 
line, within fifty yards above and one hundred yards below 
suchdam. This prohibition is intended to act as an induce- 
ment to mill-owners and others to construct fish-passes, but 
the condition that the pass must have water “constantly ” 
flowing through it has acted as a deterrent. The expedient 
of raising the dam, to compensate for the making of the 
pass, would probably remove this scruple on the part of the 
owner, and it is perhaps worthy of consideration whether 
the law might not be altered to empower a Board of Con- 
servators to make such a bargain with a mill-owner, on 
condition of his exercising certain fishing rights, to be 
limited according to the efficiency of the pass. Every extra 
spawning fish that passed the obstruction would improve 
the productiveness of the river generally and of the fishery 
in question in particular; the mill-owner might make a 
satisfactory bargain by sacrificing to some extent his milling 
powers for the sake of an increasingly productive fishery, 
and the Board might make a not unreasonable arrangement 
in giving the miller a property in a part of the fish in 
exchange for the greater facilities that he might accord 
the remainder. 
In any case, pass or no pass, the Conservators of every 
district should be empowered to net the waters below any 
dam and transfer the fish from the lower to the upper side 
