8 



tances from each other ; and at various places in the 

 lower or flood side, it was so constructed as to open 

 and shut with the current. These places, again, were 

 kept open by the flood-tide, so that the fish, during the 

 flood, were allowed to go freely into the net ; but when 

 the current of the tide changed and took the opposite 

 direction, the loose net- work, pressed by the receding 

 water, was closed, thus forming a complete inclosure, 

 in which the fish were detained. And as the tide ebbed, 

 they sunk down into the lake, where they were caught 

 by the fishers, at low water. 



Such was the origin of what is now called the STAKE- 

 NET. And it is a curious circumstance, worthy of parti- 

 cular notice, that, induced by the success of the fishery 

 in these lakes, two brothers, William and James Irvine, 

 experienced fishers on the Solway, and nearly related to 

 Messrs. Little, who afterwards introduced the invention 

 into the Tay, visited the Tay, for the purpose of ascer- 

 taining whether there were any suitable lakes in that frith, 

 upon which tide-nets might be erected. But they return- 

 ed, reporting to their friends that there were none. 



It turned out, however, that these lakes were not es- 

 sentially necessary for the successful prosecution of the 

 new mode of fishing. Accordingly, Mr. John Little, one 

 of the Solway fishers, and a gentleman of great ingenuity 

 and intelligence in other matters, having accidentally visit- 

 ed the Tay about the year 1797, resolved to try the ex- 

 pcriment in that frith, and before he left it, he took, for 

 himself and three brothers, a lease of the Salmon fisheries 

 on the estate of Seaside. 



A net, precisely similar to those on the Solway, having, 

 accordingly, been erected at Sea-side, the success exceeded 

 the most sanguine expectations. Previous to this time, 

 there was, it may -be said, no fishing at that station, the 



