80 THE LAW OF SCOTLAND 



fish in the knowledge that the proprietor objects, 

 and still more if, after being warned off, he 

 persist in returning, the remedy is to raise an 

 action of interdict. If the suit be successful, 

 the defender will generally be ordered to pay 

 the costs ; and disregard of the interdict, when 

 granted, will be treated as contempt of court, 

 and punished by fine or imprisonment. 



Even the most careful angler may occasionally 

 find himself unwittingly fishing in forbidden 

 waters. In such a case the proper course is at 

 once to apologise, and explain that the trespass 

 was unintentional, and leave the river. It is 

 probable that under these circumstances an 

 application for interdict would only succeed if 

 there were reason to doubt the lona fides of the 

 explanation. 



So much as to questions of right between pro- 

 prietors and the public : we have still to consider 

 what modes of fishing are legal and what illegal. 

 Until the passing of the Acts after referred to, 

 trout could be taken by any means which neither 

 interfered unnecessarily with the salmon-fishing, 

 if it belonged to a separate person, nor injured 

 the trout-fishing of the neighbouring proprietors. 

 But to prevent certain unsportsmanlike practices 

 which were only too common, Parliament stepped 

 in, and passed two Acts, one in the year 1845, 



