under the impulse of some powerful instinct ; and as it is 

 the habit of the fish, when so impelled, to take the direct 

 course of the mid-channel, they are thus seldom within 

 reach of the stake-nets. No doubt, some fish seeking the 

 fresh water, a few, which, if not intercepted, would 

 have found their way to the upper fisheries, may fall 

 within reach of the nets in the sea and the friths. But 

 the number is small. The fish captured by the stake-nets, 

 are, almost exclusively, those which, if not so intercepted, 

 would have gone back to the ocean, or pursued their gam- 

 bols on other shores. 



This is evident, from many considerations ; especially 

 from the fact, that the success of the stake-nets is equal- 

 ly great in the ebb-tide as in the flood. In the Tay, the 

 Sol way fishers excited some surprise when they proposed 

 to turn the opening of the court or chamber of the net, to 

 the ebb* Who, it was said, can believe that the fish will be 

 caught in the ebb, when they are all seeking their way up 

 the river ? But the knowledge and skill of the fishers was 

 soon apparent ; for the nets which had their chambers to 

 meet the ebb, were just as successful as those which received 

 the flood. There were just as many fish daily going down 

 the frith, as there were daily coming up. And, according- 

 ly, a great number of the most successful fisheries, not only 

 on the Tay, but everywhere else, have had e6-nets. One 

 half, it may be said, of all the fish which were caught by 

 the stake-nets in the Tay, were caught by e&6-nets, in 

 other words, were fish going out of the frith. To some 

 situations, indeed, the ebb-net is most applicable. Thus, 

 at Kirkside, near the mouth of Montrose Bay, by which 

 th a North and South Esk fall into the sea, a stake -net 

 has \lately been erected, which has all its chambers to the 

 ebb, \o that it receives no fish except what are going out, 



