41 



suppose, that any increase in the produce of the nets in 

 the friths and in the sea, would materially, or in any per- 



mate knowledge of the habits of the fish, and of the currents 

 and tides on the coast, requires also, no small portion of na- 

 tural talent. It often happens, that one man will catch a vast 

 number of fish, where another, wanting the same skill and in- 

 genuity, altogether fails. There is so much difficulty in se- 

 lecting a proper station, in placing the leaders of the net, so 

 as to be effective, in choosing the proper scite for the cham- 

 bers, where the fish will be most subject to capture, and in con- 

 structing them, so as to entrap the fish in the greatest num- 

 bers, and, at the same time, with sufficient intricacy to detain 

 all which they receive ; that it is not every fisher who can 

 display the full value of a station, or the efficacious powers of the 

 engine. Messrs Little, to whom, and their partners, the country 

 is chiefly indebted for the invention, left the Scots fisheries, after 

 the stake-nets were prohibited in the friths and estuaries, and re* 

 moved to Ireland, where they have now extensive establishments. 

 But Mr. John Holliday, of Droughty Ferry, the nephew and 

 formerly the partner of Messrs. Little, is still engaged in the 

 fishery here. He is the tacksman of several of the principal 

 stations on the coast near Montrose, and at other places ; and 

 is, perhaps, better qualified than any other individual in Scot- 

 land, to prosecute the fishery with advantage. Indeed, the suc- 

 cessful fisheries are, for the most part, in the hands of those 

 who have received their knowledge from Messrs. Little and 

 Holliday : And even the sea-fishings, so far north as the Mur- 

 ray Frith, are held by fishers from the Tay, recently connected 

 with them. Were the use of stake-nets legalized, however, 

 persons possessed of the requisite qualifications, would not be 

 wanting, to prosecute the fishery to an extent hitherto unknown. 

 But the law, in regard to them, is so calculated, in its present 



F 



