b THE FISHERIES. 



law ; be this as it may, there can be no question but 

 that these weirs and Salmon-fisheries, can deduce a 

 title, more ancient in its origin, and unbroken in pos- 

 session, than, perhaps any other species of property 

 in the kingdom. 



A few ancient stake or head-weirs, in localities 

 carefully selected (where no injury or obstruction to 

 navigation could occur), also formed a species of fixed 

 property in fisheries. The origin of these, also, is 

 carried back to a very remote period ; it seems, 

 indeed, to have been the original purpose of the Act 

 of 1842, to legislate for these particular stake-weirs 

 and these only. The clause recites that doubts ex- 

 isted with regard to the legality of stake-weirs, and 

 then proceeds to legahze them. These old weirs 

 also, were frequently appurtenant to religious houses, 

 and seem to have been used as a substitute for solid 

 weirs, in places where the latter could not have been 

 constructed; and their number being very limited, 

 and their position carefully chosen, they were not 

 regarded as an injury either to navigation or to the 

 pubhc fishery. They were frequently annexed to 

 monasteries and abbeys — that of Dunbrody, for in- 

 stance — and had acquired, from time immemorial, 

 and length of possession, that sanction, which is the 

 foundation and security of all property. 



There is not, perhaps, any branch of our law 

 more intricate than that which relates to Salmon- 

 fisheries ; and the intermixture of public with private 

 rights, raises some of the nicest questions known to 



