171 



13. * That angling as well as other fishing shall be prohibited on 

 Sundays. 



14. ' That the weekly close time shall be for draught net fishing, 

 from the low water next in point of time after six o'clock on Satur- 

 day evening to the low water next in point of time before six o'clock 

 on Monday morning.' 



A memorial to his Excellency, founded on the above Resolutions, 

 was then drawn up and approved of, and directed to be forwarded to 

 his Excellency by Dr. Shiel. 



(Signed,) JOHN LITTLE, 



Chairman of Committee. 



IX. 



The following extracts are made from an instructive and impartial 

 article on ' Salmon Fisheries,' in the Quarterly Review, vol. xxxvii., 1828. 

 The question of the propriety of Fixed Engines is well discussed, and 

 that one which contains much difficulty as to the boundary river- 

 ward of which fixed nets ought to be prohibited, receives some eluci- 

 dation : 



" The great labour constantly required in the management of mov- 

 able nets in rivers, and the number of fish which occasionally make 

 their escape to the higher stations, led, at an early period, to the erec- 

 tion of a fixed apparatus of wooden lattices, or wicker-work, for the 

 purpose of intercepting the migrating fish, and directing them into 

 suitable labyrinths for capture. These engines, anciently termed kidels 

 in England, and more recently fish-weirs, or locks, and cruives, in Scot- 

 land, differ in their form, extent, and composition, according to the 

 resources or ingenuity of their proprietors. In many cases they extend 

 across the stream from bank to bank, and consequently intercept all 

 the fish on their way to higher stations, and thus secure the monopoly 

 of the stream. Where the whole river and its streams belong to one 

 proprietor, such an engine would unquestionably be the most efficient 

 and the least expensive, and might be so constructed and regulated as 

 to be perfectly harmless. But where different proprietors have an in- 

 terest in the river and tributary streams, the use of such an apparatus 

 is equivalent to the monopoly of their fisheries. Even if this engine 

 extended but a short way into the water from each bank, so as to 

 leave a free space in the middle of the stream, of such an extent as it 

 should, according to the ordinance of Alexander III. of Scotland, * in 

 all parts be swa free, that ane swine, of the age of three zears, well fed, 

 may turne himself within the streame, round about, swa that his suowt 

 nor taill sail not touch the bank of the water,' or according to the in- 

 terpretation of competent authority, ' be free from any hedge or heck, 

 palisadoes, or rails, placed for interrupting the Salmon,' still this space 

 can be so easily filled up by a temporary apparatus, as to enable the 

 engine to intercept all the running fish; and there is abundance of 

 evidence in the Reports to lead to the conviction, that the abuse now 

 referred to is in full practice at all the kidels and cruives in the United 

 Kingdom. 



" In our opinion, fixed engines of this description, on all rivers with 

 mixed property, should be everywhere abolished, agreeably to the 



