48 SALMON-FISHERY OF SCOTLAND. 



them, instead of going to the rivers ? Perhaps these salmon 

 were not made acquainted with the cure. Have not cods and 

 skate similar lice ? Why do they not also go to the rivers for 

 a cure ? Are not almost all salmon infested with these insects 

 while in the sea ? Why do they not, then, rise all at once and 

 go into the first river they meet with, to rid themselves of 

 them ? Why, under such annoyance, do not salmon seek relief 

 in the nearest fresh water, but, with exemplary patience, pass 

 river after river till they reach their native stream ? Is it only 

 their natal water that can kill the lice ? How do you think 

 the salmon found this out ? We believe it would not be easy 

 to Mr Halliday to answer these questions. To account for the 

 great operations of nature, or the migrations of animals, by lice, 

 is undoubtedly a rare idea : it is altogether piquant ; this 

 lousy argument is, therefore, said to have had great weight in 

 the Parliament House, by proving that the salmon are driven, 

 without ceasing, from the sea to the rivers, and from the rivers 

 back to the sea, like shuttlecocks. 



In truth, to speak seriously, there is only one fact, amid all 

 the nonsense, and all the mass of absurdities, resorted to by 

 the stake-net fishers in support of their pretensions, and for the 

 purpose of enabling them to transfer to themselves, by means 

 of their new machinery, the whole property of the river heri- 

 tors, and to ruin the river fisheries, by breaking the shoals, and 

 intercepting the fish on their return to the rivers, which merits 

 refutation namely, that salmon are sometimes caught in the 

 ebb cruives of their engines. This fact, however, is easily 

 accounted for ; when one once gets hold of the true system, 

 any little discrepancies which seem inconsistent with it only 

 require to be investigated to be blown away. In their progress 

 along the coast to the rivers, the salmon always proceed with 

 the flood-tide, which carries them on to, and ends at, the ravers,* 

 and rest, during the ebb-tide, in eddies, and in easy water ; 

 hence great numbers are always caught in the flood-traps of 

 the stake-nets placed in their course, while comparatively but 

 few are got in the ebb-traps. In proceeding forward, at a short 



* " Salmon," says the stake-net fisher, Johnstone, in the Committee, " in the 

 sea, never go against the tide." 



