246 THE SALMON 



destroyed and putrified.' We find similar enactments 

 applying to the rivers of Lancashire and elsewhere, 

 and Commissioners and Conservators appointed even 

 in ancient days to put them down, a practice which, 

 as we shall see, has been followed by modern legis- 

 lation. 



In Scotland, fixed engines have been prohibited 

 from a very early period, especially in rivers and 

 estuaries. The old law, and the statutes applicable 

 to them, was discussed at great length by the Lord 

 Justice Clerk in the case of Kintore v. Forbes, 48. 641 

 (1826), the conclusion derived, after a careful examin 

 ation of the various Acts of Parliament from the time 

 of Alexander II., being that stake nets (a form of 

 fixed engine) were not illegal in the sea, but that 

 it was settled law that if set in rivers <n in estuaries, 

 to the fullest extent of their limits, they were 

 illegal. 



The first Act of Parliament dealing with the 

 matter in Ireland is that passed in 28 Henry VIII., 

 against the erection of weirs and other engines 

 for catching fish upon the Barrow and other rivers. 



As the law now stands, fixed engines are illegal in 

 England in inland and tidal waters. The term ' fixed 

 engine ' has been defined by the Salmon Fishery Acts 

 to mean ' any net or other instrument for taking fish, 



