INTRODUCTORY g 



tory SalmonidcE were protected by statute, although the migratory 

 element helped to influence the affirmative view which he expressed. 

 It was this same element which had already prevailed in fixing the 

 definition of the word " salmon " in the Scottish statutes, and one may 

 trace the history of that definition in a very few words. 



Salmon fishing appears to have been, in early times in Scotland, a 

 favourite topic of legislation, for the subject is dealt with in very many 

 of the Acts of the old Scots Parliament. One does not find many 

 references, however, in these old Acts, to " other fish of the salmon 

 kind " than salmon. The earliest reference apparently occurs in an 

 Act of 13 18, in the Bruce's reign, where regulations are made as to 

 various kinds of obstructions in tidal waters which prevent the ascent 

 or descent " salmunculi vel smolti seu fria alterius generis piscium maris 

 vel aque dulcis," that is to say, young salmon or smolts or the fry of 

 " other kinds " of sea or fresh-water fishes. Another Act, that of 1426, 

 refers to " salmondis and uthir fische." The Act of 1469, again, more 

 definite, refers to " fisch, salmon grilses and trowtis." Beyond such 

 rather vague references, in a series of some twenty Statutes, I know of 

 nothing in the old Acts which would extend the whole scope of the laws 

 relating to the salmon and its young to other fish than salmon. 



It is in the modern series of Statutes that a definite extension of the 

 meaning of the word " salmon " first appears. In the Act of 1828, the 

 first of the series, the fish are grouped as " salmon, grilse, sea-trout, or 

 other fish of the salmon kind." Then the Act of 1844 applies to 

 " salmon, grilse, sea-trout, whitling, or other fish of the salmon kind," 

 whitling being thus specifically mentioned. But the Act of 1862, in 

 the definition now in force, dropped the whitling, added bull trout, 

 smolts and parr, and introduced the term " migratory." Thus, since 

 1862, the word "salmon" has, in statutory law, meant and included 

 ■■ salmon, grilse, sea-trout, bull trout, smolts, parr, and other migratory 

 fish of the salmon kind." 



