33 



ing of * a queen's share'* in solid weirs, and by empowering 

 passages for fish to be made in all natural obstructions, and 

 over all artificial dams, so as to allow a portion of the fish free 

 passage to the upper parts of rivers during the open season. 



Such being the ' objects' of the Act, as set forth in the above- 

 mentioned publication their fulfilment, so far as the increase 

 of produce and the compensation thereby to existing interests, 

 (infringed upon for the public good,) would depend on the 

 extent to which those compensatory means were acted upon : 

 and it is contended, if the new law was not sufficiently strin- 

 gent to put down illegal weirs summarily, to enforce the observ- 

 ance of the close times by Fixed Engines, to open queen's 

 shares remove obstructions, and make migratory passes, that, 

 while benefits were actually conferred on newly created in- 

 terests, the law, proving ineffective to secure what should 

 have accompanied them, (and on which the success of the 

 full measure depended,) became inequitable and unjust in 

 operation. 



The brochure proceeds ' In the preservation and protection 

 of the breeding fish, not only the interests of the three classes 

 of proprietors in each river are common, but those of the public 

 are essentially concerned. The upper proprietors hold the 

 spawning beds, the nurseries in which the fish are reared, and 

 they have in their power, to a great extent, under any state of 

 the law, the preservation or destruction of the species. If they 

 get no share of the good fish during the open season, it is not to 

 be expected that they will protect the breeding fish in the close 

 season. In the present state of the law, and the practices of 

 the owners of weirs on the lower part of rivers, the proprietors 



stringent penalties. It is difficult for upper proprietors, whose interest might 

 lie from twenty to a hundred miles off, to watch the observance of this latter 

 cessation from taking salmon; and, on the part of the public fishermen, perhaps, 

 a hesitation to challenge the acts of protected stake or bag net owners, by bring- 

 ing them before the local magistrates. The practical difficulty of ascertaining 

 whether the leaders of bag-nets are tied up, in the open sea, is well known. 

 Somewhat similar difficulties would be presented to those owners as to procuring 

 protection in remote interiors, and convictions for killing fish in the close season. 



* QUEEN'S SHARES IN SOLID OR 'CRUIVE DAM WEIRS.' The antiquity of 

 these exemptions to prevent entire monopoly is equal to that of statutes to 

 restrain it. 



The Mona-rea or gap of the king, in the great Limerick weir, is probably as 

 ancient as the 12th century. By an ordinance of Alexander III. of Scotland, 

 the space left should in all parts be " swa free, that ane swine of the age of 

 three zears well fed, may turne himself within the stream round about, swa 

 that his snowt nor taill sail not touch the bank." Various fraudulent contriv- 

 ances have been employed to defeat their intention, for preventing the fish 

 from passing through them. In the course of last year the gap in the weir near 

 Coleraine, was found to have been obstructed for several years by means of a 

 plank, to which were fastened a series of iron bars pointing down stream. 

 The lessee of the corporation of Limerick formerly employed an ingenious 

 device for this purpose, called a "crocodile," a piece of timber 'something 

 in the shape of an alligator, painted with very glaring colours, so as to frighten 

 the salmon.' Evidence, 1825, p. 60. 



D 



