44 SALMON-FISHERY OF SCOTLAND. 



more complete destruction of property than is thus occasioned 

 to the river heritors. 



In the Courts of Law, where the nature of the salmon-fishery 

 is so imperfectly understood, it is supposed that, unless a stake- 

 net be planted in an estuary, or in the vicinity of a river, it can 

 do but little injury to the river fishery ; but any man gifted 

 with common sense must see that the injury must be the same, 

 whether the engine be set in an estuary, or on the coast of the 

 sea, if it be placed in the course of the fish ; just as the injury 

 to the owner of a mill is the same, whether the mill-water be 

 intercepted, or taken away, at the distance of ten yards or ten 

 miles from the mill. It has been said, that stake-nets increase 

 the supply of fish at market ; but if they act, and can only act, 

 by interception of the fish proceeding to the rivers, how can 

 they increase the supply, since the increase in one part must, 

 necessarily, be met with a corresponding diminution in 

 another ? So sure are the instincts of salmon, that none can 

 be taken on the coasts which, if not so taken, would not reach 

 the rivers. It is, indeed, upon the very strength of this in- 

 stinct that the stake-net system is founded, since, but for it, 

 such timid animals would all fly back at the sight of such for- 

 midable machinery ; yet they often attempt to force their way 

 through the arms, or leaders, where they are found suspended 

 without entering the traps at all, so strong is the impulse 

 which leads them to the river. 



The whole of the fish thus returning, that is, the whole of 

 the fish which come on the coast, whether intercepted in the 

 stake-nets, or allowed to reach the rivers, it will be observed, 

 are charged with spawn. Every one of them, therefore, if not 

 killed, would become a spawning fish ; and as the spawn can 

 only be deposited in the rivers, it is obvious that all of them, 

 from this fact alone, must necessarily, from the law of their 

 nature, be on their progress to the rivers. In the early part of 

 the season the roe is small in all salmon, and it increases in 

 size as the season advances, until the period of spawning. The 

 stake-net owners say, that the salmon caught by them woul& 

 not go to the rivers ; in other words, that when a shoal of 

 salmon, in its progress to its river, comes in contact with one 



