146 



THE SALMON. 



over by the Right Hon. T. F. Kennedy, agreed to a 

 Report (subsequently embodied in an unsuccessful Bill), 

 recommending almost all the improvements that have 

 become law only about forty years afterwards, lengthen- 

 ing of the annual and weekly close-times, removal of 

 obstructions, widening of meshes, suppression of leister- 

 ing, etc. It is wonderful that, in three years after 

 such a report, Parliament should have quietly passed 

 a Bill, like Mr. Home Drummond's, going in quite 

 the opposite direction. It is not wonderful that that 

 pernicious change was soon felt and complained of. 

 In 1835, the late Mr. P. M. Stewart and the late Mr. 

 James Loch introduced a Bill giving the majority of 

 proprietors, in number and value, on each river the 

 power of fixing the season, but providing that net-fishing 

 should in no case be continued after 31st August, and 

 that rod-fishing should be permitted for three weeks after 

 the withdrawal of the nets. Next year, the same mem- 

 bers tried a Bill, dividing Scotland into twelve districts, 

 with different but fixed close-times, and giving fourteen 

 extra days for rod-fishing. Three years later, Mr. Wal- 

 lace of Kelly had a Bill stopping net-fishing on the 24th 

 of August, and Joseph Hume produced one for giving 

 three weeks' angling after the stoppage of the nets. In 

 1842, Mr. Ellice, member for the St. Andrews burghs, 

 proposed that the regulation of the salmon-fisheries in 

 Scotland should be handed over " with powers" to the 

 Board of Fisheries. In 1 8 5 1, the Duke of Argyle brought 

 in a bill making the close-time commence earlier, and 

 giving some weeks of grace to the rod-fishers. All these 

 measures, besides several others, were either thrown out 



