xvi INTRODUCTORY 



years erected his barriers of logs to stop the ascend- 

 ing salmon, so that he may scoop out his little supply, 

 regardless of the consequences to the river stock. 

 The officials who supervise the salmon fisheries of 

 the American continent are still opening up those 

 Indian dams. The fishing weirs of England and 

 the cruive dykes of Scotland are the British pro 

 totype of the aboriginal structures ; indeed, the 

 Gaelic word cruive seems to indicate that branches 

 were originally used. They are now stone weirs 

 with fishing boxes in the gaps — usually the only 

 gaps — left for the descent of the water and ascent 

 of the fish. The salmon yairs of the Solway Dee 

 are analogous structures in which the leaders or 

 walls are still made of wattle. 



Cruive dykes were erected in most Scottish rivers 

 in early days, but where owners of such structures 

 held also interest in upper waters the dykes were 

 for the most part voluntarily abolished on account 

 of their extremely injurious influence on the breed- 

 ing stock. In 1424 they were abolished by statute 

 when set in fresh water " quhair the sea filles 

 and ebbis," and now only some six remain in Scottish 

 rivers, only three of which are fished. 



In spite, however, of those ancient statutes pro- 

 viding for the preservation of breeding fish, and of 

 the more modern regulations as to meshes of nets 

 and annual and weekly close times, as well as recom- 

 mendations for the reduction of legitimate netting, 

 there are those who regard such restrictions, such 

 interferences with the liberty of the subject, as 

 superfluous and undesirable. In evidence before 



