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proprietors might fish as they pleased. The fish 

 were found to have quitted many spots where they 

 had formerly been found in great numbers, and 

 although the " fluctuating nature of fisheries de- 

 pending on unknown causes," (page 47) may 

 account for it in one or two seasons, it will not 

 account for a continuation of this scarcity : and 

 in rivers where no other cause could have contri- 

 buted to drive the fish away, it was naturally attri- 

 buted to the stake-nets. The plainest mode of 

 reasoning on subjects of this sort is generally the 

 best. The fishermen saw that their fisheries were 

 diminished ; they knew that the stake-nets were 

 taking fish in great quantities, and they properly 

 concluded, that if more were taken by one way, 

 fewer must be taken by any other way. 



Indeed the Author of the Pamphlet can hardly 

 be serious in attempting to make out that the coble 

 fishings are improved by the stake-nets ; " plenty- 

 returned to the coble-net fishings, when the stake- 

 nets were restored to the frith.". (Note, page 47.) 

 And, accordingly, he comforts (page 54) the upper 

 heritors, with a view of the prodigious power of 

 increase which the roe of the Salmon displays, and 

 calculates that whatever quantity of fish are taken, 

 if the power of increase were allowed to develope 

 itself fully, there could be no sensible diminution 

 of the numbers. 



But there are still some objections to the new 

 mode of stake-net fishing, which remain to be no- 



