56 SALMON-FISHERY OF SCOTLAND. 



" In point of fact, to your knowledge, lias the fishery of the river 

 Beauly increased or decreased ?" " DECKEASED MOST CONSIDERABLY." 



"To what causes do you ascribe the decrease 1 ?" "To the stake- 

 nets and yairs in the Frith. The stake-nets destroy the fishery in 

 the river very much. Since 1816 it has been a losing concern." 



"Are there any other causes to which, in addition to stake-nets, 

 you attribute it?" "None that I have heard of." 



All these facts are in direct contradiction to the statements 

 of Dr Fleming, and, added to the documents produced by Mr 

 Buist, prove beyond dispute, if, after what has been said rela- 

 tive to the habits and instincts of the fish, any proof were 

 necessary, that the stake-net system has added nothing to the 

 public supply of salmon. To the public the system must be 

 injurious, because it is so to the fishery in general ; first, by 

 the dispersion of the salmon shoals on the coasts, which is an 

 evil of the very greatest magnitude ; next, by the excess of 

 fishing which it has occasioned ; and, lastly, by destroying 

 the interest which the proprietors of the rivers have, or ought 

 to have, in the improvement of the fishery, and making them, 

 as the great author has expressed it, mere " clocking hens to 

 hatch fish for others to catch," every one of which reasons 

 tend directly to the decline of the fishery. On the score of the 

 over-fishing system, the Committee ask Mr Hogarth, 



" Do you conceive that, by any improvement or extension of the 

 mode of fishing now in use, an increased quantity of salmon could 

 be permanently supplied?" "I do not; on the contrary, I think 

 the fishings are much too assiduously fished at present, and have 

 been for many years. It is owing to too close fishing that the size 

 of the salmon has decreased as well as the number. We seldom 

 now see a fish above two years old." 



"Do you suppose this is owing to the fishery being over-fished?" 

 "Yes, certainly." 



On this point, a gentleman who wrote many years ago* on 

 the subject of the salmon-fishery, remarks, 



" The fishing of salmon may certainly be carried on with so much 

 accuracy as gradually and greatly to diminish their number ; and it 

 is believed that this has already become the case in many of the 

 fisheries in Scotland. The first settlers in the province of New 



* Prize Essays, 1803. 



