426 THE SALMON RIVERS OF SCOTLAND 



allowable to drift the net along in the water, or to hang it 

 across the river as a species of barrier to ascending fish. The 

 net must be shot, and pulled in through the water to the bank 

 in such a manner as will preclude the possibility of the net 

 being stationary in the sense of not being caused to move 

 through the water by the fisherman. An important Court of 

 Session Case, usually called The Nith Fleeting Case, finally 

 decided this in 1919. 



With regard to fixed nets in the Solway, however, in the 

 33rd section of the Salmon Fisheries (Scotland) Act, 1862, the 

 provisions of the English Fishing Act, 1 1861, are made to take 

 the place of the Scottish provisions which regulate these 

 matters. The wording is that the Act in question " shall 

 extend and apply to salmon fisheries in the waters and on the 

 shores of the Solway Firth situate in Scotland, as the same 

 may be fixed by authority of this Act, and to the rivers flowing 

 into the same, in so far as such provisions relate to the use of 

 fixed engines for the taking of salmon : Provided that all 

 offences against such provisions shall be prosecuted and 

 punished as directed by this Act." We have therefore to go to 

 the English Act and consult the definition there given of a fixed 

 engine. In Section 4 we find " Fixed Engine shall include 

 stake nets, bag nets, putts, putchers, and all fixed implements 

 or engines for catching or for facilitating the catching of fish." 

 This is not really very explicit. After mentioning four varieties 

 we are simply told that fixed engines shall include fixed engines. 

 The definition was revised, however, by the Solway Salmon 

 Fisheries Commissioners (Scotland) Act, 1877, 2 which says, 

 " In this Act and in the Salmon Fisheries (Scotland) Act, 1862, 

 and in any Act therewith incorporated, ' Fixed Engine ' shall 

 include any net or other implement for taking fish, fixed to the 

 soil or made stationary in any other way, not being a cruive or 

 mill-dam." This seems to me to be sufficient without any 

 dubiety, to include haaf nets. Many prosecutions have been 

 carried out against haaf netting in the past, but these, I believe, 

 have been mainly on the ground that the fishing was on the 

 ground of proprietors who had not granted permission, the 

 Solway Act of 1804 (Section 9) 3 expressly providing that 



1 24 and 25 Viet. C. 109. 2 40 and 41 Viet. C. CCXL. S. 4. 

 44 Geo. III. C. 45. 



