54 SALMON-FISHERY OF SCOTLAND. 



tional quantity of fish produced by their engines in the Tay, 

 which they state at 30,000 annually, without any injury, they 

 say, to the river fishings ; for, even Dr Fleming states in the 

 Committee, 



" I have no reason to think that, during the operation of the 

 stake-net mode of fishing in the estuary, there ever was a decided 

 diminution in the produce of the river fishery." 



This, however, was perfectly impossible, from the nature and 

 instincts of the fish. Besides, so great an increase of supply 

 from the Tay alone, in addition to the increased supply from 

 all the other stake-nets in the kingdom, must have reduced the 

 price of salmon at market most considerably ; and yet the 

 Doctor in almost the next sentence tells us, 



" It does not appear that the price of salmon fell in consequence 

 of the additional supply from the stake-nets of the Tay." 



It did not fall, because there was in fact no additional sup- 

 ply. The supply from the river fisheries, notwithstanding the 

 Doctor's assertion, diminishing in the same proportion in which 

 that from the stake-nets increased. From the accounts pro- 

 duced by Mr Buist, in the Committee, the correctness of which 

 cannot be disputed, as they were extracted, not from his own 

 books, but from the books of the Dundee Shipping Company, 

 by whose vessels the fish from all the fisheries were sent to 

 London, it appears that, during the last three years, when the 

 stake-nets were in operation in the estuary, viz. 1810, 1811, 

 and 1812, the average annual export from the river fishings was 

 only 1665 boxes of fish ; while, according to the statements 

 of the stake-net fishers themselves, their exports amounted 

 to 4000 boxes making together 5665 boxes yearly. Now, 

 during the first three years after the stake-nets were removed, 

 the average annual amount of the river fisheries was 4552 boxes ; 

 and during the next three years, after the river had somewhat 

 recovered from the effects of the stake-net system, it amounted to 

 5930 boxes, being, during these three years, 265 boxes a-year 

 more than was produced by loth fisheries while the stake-nets 

 were in operation. If we look to individual fishings they will be 

 found to confirm the statement. Lord Gray's fishings, which, 

 during the stake-net system, produced, in two years, only 8534 



