39 



to be found at the sea fishings. // is in the fresh water* 

 that they are caught in the greatest numbers. 



Accordingly, in the Tay case, on a particular investi- 

 gation of this point, it turned out that the number of red 

 or unspawned fish, which had been taken by the stake- 

 nets, was very small ; and that the capture of foul or new- 

 ly spawned fish, or kdls, as they are termed by the fish- 

 ermen, was equally inconsiderable : while, on the other 

 hand, the destruction of both descriptions, by the coble- 

 nets, was very serious. A regular survey was made in the 

 month of August 1809, of some of the upper fisheries, 

 and it appeared that the coble-nets there, captured/orfy- 

 six Salmon between the 14th and 28th of August, and 

 that of these forty-six, twenty-three were red jish, or fish 

 ready to spawn, and seeking the spawning ground. 

 And as to the kelts, it was likewise given in evidence, that 

 they were taken in vast quantities by the net and coble 

 fishers, even cart-loads of them at a time, and were 

 sold at a low price to the poorer class of people. At the 

 stake-nets, however, the capture of a redjish, or of a kelt, 

 during the same period, was a circumstance that rarely 

 occurred. Can there be conceived any thing more deci- 

 sive as to the relative effects of the respective modes of 

 fishing?* 



* The deleterious quality of redjish and keltf, has been fre- 

 quently experienced, especially in Ireland, where greater free- 

 dom is used in destroying them than in this country. One 

 remarkable and very melancholy case, however, occurred here, 

 several years ago, in the parish of Moffat in Annandale. The 

 men of two families had been very assiduous, and but too suc- 

 cessful in killing red fsh, in October and November ; which 



