RESULTS OF SALMON MARKING 77 



render the weekly close time inoperative. But it 

 should be borne in mind that a proportion of each 

 run of fish is essential to the proper maintenance of 

 a suitable breeding stock in any river. In operating 

 upon the stock of salmon in the sea, however, we 

 are drawing upon a larger supply ; we are not catch- 

 ing definite runs of fish which are going to breed in 

 the near future, but are catching fish which are 

 moving ofi" and on, or along, the coast. Some of 

 them may be on their way to a river, many of them 

 are not, but are fish living in the sea. The influence 

 of such fishing upon the breeding stock is small as 

 compared with the influence of the river net, and the 

 fish so caught and marketed are in the finest con- 

 dition possible. From statistics showing the results 

 of different methods of regulating salmon fishing, as 

 practised in the past not only in Scotland but also 

 in Norway, there is, moreover, ample proof that the 

 sea rather than the river is the place for the net. 



I am aware that in England this view is regarded 

 by many as the rankest heresy. The English Act 

 of 1861 practically abolished coast netting in that 

 country, but permitted the pernicious policy of fish- 

 ing rivers not only by nets but by various forms of 

 fixed engine. A complete reversal of this policy has 

 been found efficacious in restoring depleted salmon 

 fisheries elsewhere (when other contributing agencies 

 have not also to be dealt with) and is, by all argu- 

 ments in the case, the sound course to follow. To 

 capture 15,000 to 18,000 salmon on the coast of a 

 single Scottish district, where the breeding stock is 

 maintained by a well-stocked river now all but 



