38 



can establish any thing, that it is the coble-nets alone, 

 those favourites of the law, by which the fry is injured 

 or destroyed ; while the stake-nets, which the same law 

 at present prohibits and puts down, are altogether harm- 

 less. 



How, then, stands the case, next, with reference to 

 the spawning fish ? 



It is very evident, that there must be a destruction of 

 these fish, in a greater or less degree, at all stations to 

 which they resort, whether the engines in use be stake- 

 nets or coble-nets. But here, again, as in the case of the 

 fry, the result is infinitely more favourable to the stake- 

 nets than to the other. 



The stake-nets, it will be kept in view, are not fitted 

 for narrow rivers, neither can they extend through the 

 depth of the mid-channel, the place of navigation. They 

 can be used with advantage, only upon the banks and 

 shoals of the friths, and the sloping shores of the ocean, 

 which the tide leaves when it ebbs. But it is not at these 

 stations that the spawning fish are to be found in any great 

 numbers. Stray fish may, no doubt, find their way within 

 reach of the nets; and at stations in friths immediately below 

 the fresh water, they may even be found, in considerable 

 numbers, at late periods of the season, waiting for thejloods 

 to aid them in ascending the rivers to the spawning grounds. 

 But, generally speaking, the spawning fish, impelled by 

 their natural instinct, rush from the sea to the fresh wa- 

 ter with great impetuosity. And both in ascending the 

 rivers, in order to spawn, and afterwards, in returning to 

 the sea, they almost uniformly keep the direct course 

 afforded by the mid-channel, where they have the assist- 

 ance of the tide. It is seldom, therefore, that such fish are 



