SCOTLAND 157 



that river impassable. The average size of sea- trout 

 is going up." 



The CREE and the MINNOCK, uniting about seven 

 miles above the top of the tide, are naturally very 

 productive, and there is an early run of fish ; but the 

 long, narrow estuary is so thickly beset with nets 

 that in 1899 the stock of fish showed unmistakable 

 signs of failure. An Angling Association of six 

 persons obtained a lease of the whole net and rod 

 fishings for twenty-one years. The nets through- 

 out the water were removed ; a sixty-hours' weekly 

 close time was arranged with the owner of a stake 

 net in the bay; the spawning beds, previously 

 poached without mercy, were placed under protection 

 of a trustworthy superintendent and four watchers. 

 The immediate result was a fine run of salmon and 

 grilse ; the narrow upper waters were closely packed 

 with fish, making an astonishing display in times of 

 drought. On the death of the principal proprietor, 

 in 1901, his successor brought an action in the 

 Courts and ousted the Association from the tenancy. 

 The defect in the lease consisted in a provision 

 inserted for the benefit of the proprietor. The 

 members of the Association, desiring only the spring 

 and summer fishing, had agreed that the proprietor 

 should resume his rights every autumn, so as to let 

 the fishings with his various shootings. The Judges 

 held that this right of re-entry altered what would 

 otherwise have been one lease for twenty-one years 

 into twenty-one leases of nine months each, which, 

 of course, it was ultra vires of a proprietor to grant 



