206 FIXED ENGINES OF CAPTURE. [CHAT. v. 



this part of the salmon question is given to the commissioners 

 appointed to carry out the Act. Stake and bag nets in Scot- 

 land are known to have been very destructive, as have the 

 putchers, butts, and trumpets of the English and Welsh rivers. 

 It would be tedious to describe the different fixed engines 

 invented for the capture of salmon ; what I desire to show is 

 that they have injured the fisheries. A controversy has been 

 raging in Scotland for some years back on this point of the 

 salmon question, which, there can be no doubt, will ultimately 

 result in their entire extinction. That they have been a most 

 fruitful cause of injury to the fisheries has been proved by a 

 long array of facts and figures. A striking example of the 

 effect of bag-nets occurred with regard to the Tay. The sys- 

 tem having been extended to that river, the productiveness of 

 the upper portions of the stream was very speedily affected ; 

 and again, shortly after their removal, the fisheries became 

 greatly more productive, as will be seen by and by when it 

 becomes necessary to deal with the figures denoting the rental 

 of that river. 



Although I have already referred to it, it is most important 

 to note here much more particularly the fact that, with pro- 

 bably the solitary exception of the Tweed (and there the 

 deterioration has only recently been arrested), the size and 

 weight of salmon are annually diminishing, and, as some 

 fishermen think, their condition and flavour also. There can 

 be no doubt that in the golden age of the fisheries they at- 

 tained much larger proportions than they do now. I need 

 scarcely quote in support of this opinion the fish mentioned 

 by Yarrell, which was exhibited by Mr. Groves, and weighed 

 eighty-three pounds ; nor that alluded to by Pennant, whicli 

 was only ten pounds lighter ; nor the fact that in all virgin 

 salmon-rivers the fish average a greater weight than any now 

 taken in the British streams. It is within the memory of 

 anglers that fish of forty pounds were by no means rare in the 



