66 



sible thing, that, in the actions brought into Court on 

 this subject, the rights of the coast proprietors may be 

 sustained, in opposition to all the efforts of the river mo 

 nopolists. But, let the proposed Bill be passed, and all 

 this is at once rendered impossible. The coast proprietors 

 will no longer have even a chance: For, while the above 

 clause declares, that no person ' shall place any thing in or 

 4 NEAR the said river Tay, so as to prevent the fish from EN- 

 e TERING or going up or down the said river ;' it is, by an- 

 other clause, enacted, that the river shall be held to ex- 

 tend down to where the Tay joins or empties itself into 

 4 the GERMAN OCKAN, at the Abertay or the bar.' 



How, then, are the stations to be ascertained, which 

 shall be considered as c near the said river ?* Or to what 

 distance from 4 the said river,' where it 'joins or empties 

 4 itself into the German ocean)' are proprietors to be prohi- 

 bited from making a free use of their property, on the. pre- 

 tence that they are 4 preventing the fish from entering the 

 4 said river?' Is Montrose Bay, in this sense, near the Tay ? 

 Is St. Andrews Bay near it ? In short, is there any li- 

 mit to the operation of this most indefinite term ? The 

 river proprietors will have no difficulty in tracing the pro- 

 gress of shoals of fish, from place to place, along the 

 coast, towards the entrance of the river.* And as it is 



* The course of the fish is known by the rippling of the water 

 above them, which is easily perceived by experienced fishermen. 

 When, indeed, they are going against the wind, they keep 

 near the surface, and the rippling, in this case, is such as to be 

 perceptible, even to common observers, By this means, shoals 

 bf fish are sometimes followed from one part of the coast to 

 another, till a proper opportunity occurs for capturing them. 



