SALMON-FISHERY OF SCOTLAND. 153 



not belong to him : they are separate property of the Crown 

 or of the Crown's other grantees ; and in no instance can the 

 produce of one property, be it of what kind or description it 

 may, be claimed as a natural pertinent of another property, 

 a rule which we hold to be without exception. There is not, 

 in short, a single argument of common sense to support the 

 absurd assertion that trouts are a natural pertinent of lands. 



Next, with regard to the second point of the landowners, 

 that not only the trouts in the streams upon their estates, but 

 also in the salmon rivers adjacent to, though beyond the bounds 

 of their estates or grants, have been conveyed to them by the 

 Crown, in the words piscationibus et pertinentibus (which they 

 conceive have a more imposing sound than the words " fishings" 

 and pertinents), the first question that arises is, what is meant 

 by this general expression of " fishings," which includes salmon 

 and fish of every description, and which can, therefore, be only 

 explained by the possession? The trout lawyers say it can 

 mean only trouts, because salmon require a special grant. But 

 if the word invariably means trouts, and trouts only, and was, 

 as they say, intended to convey a special right to such, even 

 without possession, was it not as easy to say trouts at once, 

 instead of the general word "fishings?" Suppose the estate 

 was situated on the sea-coast, where there are no trouts ? Still, 

 they tell us it means trouts : where there are none 1 Yes. And 

 why not haddocks, which, if the Crown can, as they say, grant 

 what is res nullius, may be meant as well as trouts 1 After all, 

 the explanation of the word must depend, as we have said, on 

 the possession ; so that, per se, it can convey no right to any one 

 kind of fish more than another, and to say that the word alone 

 conveys the trouts specially in all the adjacent rivers, is an 

 absurdity. The truth is, that the words piscationibus et per- 

 tinentibus are mere verbiage or words of style introduced into 

 all titles, and which are of no earthly use, except as a title for 

 prescription. This is so notoriously known that it is useless to 

 deny it. But, granting that the expression really means trouts 

 and nothing else, which no man could discover from the words 

 themselves, still it can only mean the trouts in the streams and 

 lakes upon the property, and nothing further. The titles, for 



