19 



on the other hand, while, as already noticed, the close- 

 time ends, and the fishing season begins in the Forth, the 

 Tay, and most other rivers, on 10th December ; it begins 

 so early as 30th November in the Spey and some others, 

 and not until 2d February in the Tweed, the North Esk, 

 and the rest. 



This single circumstance, that the existing laws per- 

 mit of such diversity as to the time of fishing within the 

 different districts of the same kingdom, is of itself a 

 satisfactory proof that the present regulation of the 

 close-time is not what it ought to be. There can be 

 no natural principle, arising from change of climate or 

 any other cause, to warrant so great a variation as 

 exists between the fishing seasons in the various ri- 

 vers. And experience, likewise, presents the same re- 

 sult; for practical fishers, as well in the fresh water 

 as in the friths, all concur in reprobating the present 

 most anomalous state of the law. There is, no doubt,- 

 as at all times, there will be, when private interests inter- 

 fere, some difference of opinion as to the nature and ex- 

 tent of the necessary alterations. But all are agreed that, 

 to some extent or other, revisal and amendment are in- 

 dispensable. 



The present system, however, is not defective in unifor- 

 mity alone; nor would its evils be corrected though any one 

 of the local regulations now in use, were to be fixed on, 

 and extended in its operation as an universal rule over 

 the whole kingdom. The duration of the fishing and 

 close seasons ought to be regulated, and can be regulated 

 properly, only by accommodating it strictly to the known 

 habits and history of the fish. 



The common Salmon is a native of the North, and de. 



