SALMON-FISHERY OF SCOTLAND. 45 



of their engines, the shoal is composed, not of fish all impressed 

 with the same instincts, but of fish with different and even 

 opposite instincts, some with instincts impelling them on to 

 the rivers, and others with contrary instincts which would drive 

 them back to the sea (though in this view it is difficult to con- 

 ceive what brought them there), and that it was only the latter 

 which were caught in their engines, the former continuing their 

 course to the river ; but in order to support this insupportable 

 absurdity, they ought to be prepared to show that the fish so 

 caught by them were not, like the others, charged with spawn, 

 or at least give some other reason of common sense for the 

 assertion. The Committee ask Mr Bell, 



" Have the fish that are caught in STAKE-NETS roe or milt in 

 them ? " " Every fish has roe or milt in it." 



Johnstone, the stake-net fisher, 



" The fish are ALL, more or less, full of spawn.'* 



Stephen, 



" In the early part of the year the roe in ALL salmon is small, and 

 it increases in size as the season advances." 



And yet, in the face of all this, Dr Fleming, the naturalist, 

 and the friend of the stake-net fishers, stated in the Committee 

 that, of the 30,000 salmon taken in the stake-nets in the estuary 

 of the Tay, every one of which was charged with spawn, none 

 would have gone to the river ! Having admitted that during 

 their migration they retired to remote parts of the ocean, the 

 reverend gentleman ought to have stated what he conceived to 

 have been the object which brought them back, if it was not to 

 proceed to the rivers ; and on what grounds he asserted that 

 they would not go to the river if it was in his power to do so. 



The stake-net owners allege, as proof that their engines do 

 not kill breeding fish, or, in other words, that they only kill 

 the barren fish that are mixed with the breeding fish in the 

 shoals, which we have stated as a great absurdity, the whole 

 being charged with spawn that towards the conclusion of the 

 season they take scarcely any fish, the breeders then keeping 

 the channel, or deep water. Thus Mr Halliday tells the Com- 

 mittee, 



