SALMON-FISHING AS AN INDUSTRY 



no particular, for the traveller Acerbi describes just such 

 a contrivance, writing in 1801. Across the mouths of 

 the streams and small rivers they erect a palisade, extend- 

 ing from bank to bank, leaving only a small opening. 

 Between the posts, bushes and branches are thrust down, 

 and so the fish in their inland migration are forced to 

 pass through the single opening. Beyond it is a three- 

 sided net or moored seine, the middle of which is 

 elongated, folded, and made to lie flat. At intervals of 

 a couple of hours the net is lifted out bodily by men 

 standing on either bank, cleared, and put back. 



We must now notice such of the British salmon-fishing 

 as does not come within the scope of the next chapter. 



A fish at once so valuable and so plentiful would, if left 

 to the tender mercies of the public, have long ago been 

 extinct in these islands. Only legal protection could 

 save it ; and from the signing of Magna Charta to the 

 present day, Sovereigns, Parliaments, Committees, and 

 Commissions have been busy drawing up and enforcing 

 regulations for the prevention of ruthless and indis- 

 criminate salmon-taking. Yet in spite of artificial breed- 

 ing, such as that carried on in the Tay, the salmon fishery 

 has decreased in recent years, partly on account of the 

 fouling of waters by land drainage and factories. With- 

 out going into tedious details it is sufficient here to say 

 that the law as it stands has fixed a close time for the 

 fish, has forbidden the use of what are called fixed engines, 

 i.e. permanent salmon-traps, and insists upon the registra- 

 tion of all nets. 



70 



