15 



advantage of the lethargy of those most interested ; and, 

 by smuggling a bill through Parliament, to rivet, by the 

 force of a modern statute, the absurd and noxious fetters 

 already existing. And in other districts, emboldened by 

 their former success against the fisheries in the friths, the 

 river proprietors are now aiming a deadly blow against a 

 discovery, for it truly is one, even more valuable and 

 splendid than the original. This is a matter which it 

 deeply concerns the public to attend to . 



At the time when the use of stake-nets was prohibited, 

 the tenants, and those who had been practically engaged 

 in the stake-net fisheries, had large capitals invested in 

 them, which could not be diverted into any other chan- 

 nel of employment but at a very great loss. They, how- 

 ever, have not remained so inactive as the proprietors of 

 those fisheries. No sooner were they driven out of the 

 friths and estuaries, than, with an enlargement of view, 

 and an elasticity of invention beyond all praise, they ex- 

 tended the field of their operations into the proper ocean 

 itself. And it is now discovered, and by the test of ex- 

 perience put beyond all doubt, that stake-nets may be used 

 with success, ON THE OPEN COAST, AND ALL ALONG THE 



SHORES OF THE SEA. 



This discovery has been made only within the last few 

 years ; and although, comparatively, the sea fishery has 

 not hitherto been carried on to great extent, yet, from the 

 experiments which have been made, it appears to be cer- 

 tain, that unless the proprietors of the river fisheries be 

 allowed, in this instance also, to destroy the hopes and in- 

 terest of the public, a very few years more will introduce 

 a total and most unexpected alteration on the Salmon fish, 

 ery of Scotland. 



