208 



STAKE AND BAG NETS. 



vent the capture of grilse, we should never want salmon. 

 The parr and smolt are protected. Why ? Because they are 

 the young of the salmon. Well, so is grilse the young of the 

 salmon, and grilse also are sadly in want of protection. 



Eecent debates in the House of Commons on the English 

 and Scottish Salmon Fisheries Bills brought out very distinctly 



STAKE-NETS ON THE RIVER SOL WAY. 



the worst phase of the salmon question viz. the prevalence of 

 stake and bag nets. These machines have exercised a bane- 

 ful influence on the fisheries, and have in numerous instances 

 intercepted about one-half of the salmon of particular rivers, 

 before they could reach their own waters. These nets are 

 erected in the tideways, not far from the shore, and as the fish 

 are coasting along towards their own particular spawning- 

 ground, they are intercepted either in the chambers of the 

 bag-net, or in the meshes of the stake-net. It is said, too, 

 that fish taken in the tidal estuaries are in far finer condi- 



