56 



being unassisted by the lower proprietors, they have not suc- 

 ceeded in effecting much good. In fact, the very want of co- 

 operation on the part of those most interested, tends to produce, 

 in some cases, rather a hostile feeling, and has led, probably, to 

 the proposal of some of those alterations in the Act to which we 

 have adverted as being at variance with its policy ; while it is 

 also this same neglect and want of co-operation, on the part of 

 those fishing on the sea coast and in estuaries, which have 

 caused the urgent demand for some system of assessment." 



With regard to the important observance of the Weekly close 

 time,* it is remarked that " those parties fishing in the sea, 

 estuaries, and lower waters, are wholly inexcusable, who not 

 only neglect to contribute to the protection of the breeding 

 fish, but by open breach or evasion of this part of the law, with 

 palpable injury to their own future interests, withhold from the 

 upper people (in whose power it is to protect or prevent the 

 increase of fish) any participation in the benefits of the fishery, 

 which the strict observance of the weekly close-time would 

 necessarily give them." 



Very few applications had been received for the formation of 

 suitable passages for the Migration of Fish over mill or other 

 artificial weirs, or through natural obstacles, owing chiefly to 

 the difficulty of collecting funds for such purposes from those 

 along the upper parts of rivers, and the total neglect of those 

 on the lower portions, and along the estuaries. 



" The formation of such passes are of a nearly equal import- 

 ance to the observance of the weekly close time ; and are 

 essential to the more equal distribution of the fish, which, at 

 present, are taken in unfairly large quantities by persons 

 having a right to fish below natural or artificial obstructions. 

 Passes for free migration are among the first measures that 

 ought to be effected in every river where such weirs and ob- 



* THE WEEKLY, OR SUNDAY CLOSE TIME. The object of this regulation, 

 prohibiting fishing by fixed engines or acts on the Sabbath, is chiefly to insure 

 the observance of that day. The select committee of 1836, on the Scottish 

 inland fisheries, strongly recommended it should be strictly enjoined and en- 

 forced in the use of all implements for fishing, especially upon the sea coasts of 

 Scotland, where it is appropriately called ' ' the Saturday's slap-by." It has a 

 most beneficial effect in promoting the interests of fisheries, as the free weekly 

 passage of salmon to the upper parts of rivers (where it supplies a week's fish- 

 ing), by inducing subsequent care, brings back one hundred fold to the lower 

 proprietors. Wherever the Lord's day has not been righteously observed, the 

 fishery of the river will be found to be comparatively unproductive : it is cer- 

 tainly accompanied by violations of the close season, for, where Divine com- 

 mands are disobeyed, human laws will be little regarded. As enjoined in Holy 

 Writ, the Sabbath is not merely a cessation from labour, but a means of recruit- 

 ing exhausted nature. Thus the ' Sabbath of years' was to be a year of rest 

 from the land. As a rule emanating from the source of Creation, might not 

 its beneficent spirit, though not its letter, be well applied to the land of Iceland, 

 where the principles of husbandry, in the Saxon significancy of the word, have 

 not been sufficiently acted upon ? 



