APPENDIX. 161 



concurrence. In enumerating the causes which have 

 led to the present depressed state of the Salmon- 

 fisheries, the first place is given to fixed nets, and to 

 their undue and unnecessary extension by the Act 

 of 1842, which gives a prescriptive right, to admitted 

 usurpations of twenty, and even of ten, years' dura- 

 tion ; it cannot be concealed, too, that to the fishing 

 community at large, the administration of the fishe- 

 ries by the Board of Works has given general dis- 

 satisfaction. Large powers are given by the Fishery 

 Acts to the Commissioners of Pubhc Works, and it 

 is complained that those powers have not been exer- 

 cised at all, or have been exercised in an objectiona- 

 ble manner. The cases enumerated are, 1st, the 

 non-exercise of the power vested in the Commis- 

 sioners, by the several Acts, respecting the close sea- 

 son. 2dly, the neglect to construct migration passes, 

 when the required funds were lodged with the Board. 

 3dly, the omission to define the mouths of rivers, 

 which is one of the most important duties prescribed 

 to their Board by the Act. During a period of 

 eight years the Commissioners have only in a few 

 cases meddled with this important question ; and in 

 rivers where they have defined it, they have, in 

 some cases fixed the mouth, three, four, or more 

 miles distant from where it actually is. 



It is submitted, that this is an objectionable mode 

 of exercising a power, in the due exercise of which 

 so vast an amount of property, both public and pri- 

 vate, is involved, and it is suggested that the mouths 



