VALUE OF THE SALMON. 7 



England and Ireland, indeed, there is no clear legal 

 distinction between a salmon-fishery and any other kind 

 of fishery, and as a general rule a fishery of whatever 

 kind excepting on the coast and in the tidal parts of 

 rivers is an appurtenance of the soil ; but in Scotland, 

 the right of salmon-fishing, both in sea and river, forms 

 a property distinct from the soil, and belongs to the 

 Crown, excluding those very numerous cases in which 

 the Crown has conveyed the right to individuals and 

 their heirs by express grant. It should be added, how- 

 ever, that in Ireland (where both the laws and customs 

 have long been in distracting confusion) there has 

 always been practically more of a difference than in 

 Scotland or even England between the right of fishing 

 in tidal waters and in rivers. The right in Irish tidal 

 waters has been held at common law to belong, not to 

 the owners of the soil, as in Irish rivers, but to the 

 Crown, as do salmon -fishery rights in the sea in 

 England, and both in sea and river in Scotland. But 

 again, there has been this difference between Scotland 

 and Ireland as to the law and treatment of Crown 

 rights in salmon-fisheries : in Scotland, the right had 

 been for the greater part granted away to private 

 persons, and where not so granted, has not been used 

 at all, at least not legally ; while in Ireland, except in 

 a very few cases where the right had been granted 

 away in ancient times, it has been held for and exer- 

 cised by the public. In England, salmon- fisheries were 

 recognised, protected, and regulated as property, by 

 Magna Charta, and both in England and Ireland began 

 to be legislated for as property at least six hundred 



