STORAGE AND PASSES 283 



upon by Lord Kintore in Chapter vii. When a 

 river is wholly the property of one person, as in the 

 case of the Helmsdale, or as in that of the Thurso, 

 the task of restoring it is easy ; but when it is 

 a divided property there are conflicting interests, 

 ill to reconcile. On the North Esk, happily, they 

 have been reconciled. All the falls are to be 

 made passable. Elsewhere, unfortunately, as Lord 

 Breadalbane has remarked, "when it comes to a 

 question of paying, nobody seems willing to do so." 

 Each of the interested persons has his own point of 

 view. The lower proprietors, who have netting 

 rights, do not see why they should not be exercised. 

 To the distiller, the miller, the manufacturer, the 

 river was manifestly designed to facilitate distilling, 

 milling, manufacturing. It is to be polluted or 

 congested exactly as the exigencies of the occupa- 

 tion may require. What are the interests of sport 

 when compared with the interests of trade ? This 

 view of the subject has until now been generally 

 accepted as inevitable. It has been a depress- 

 ing state of public opinion. Besides being rather 

 sordid, it showed a woful lack of natural knowledge. 

 If salmon are prevented from reaching the recesses of 

 the upper waters when Nature prompts them thither 

 the stock is bound to decline. The lower proprietors 

 who use their netting rights excessively are destroy- 

 ing their own interests, besides acting unjustly 

 towards the interests of others. Distillers and 

 manufacturers have in many cases been equally 

 lacking in perception. There is practically no 



