396 AN ANGLER'S RAMBLES 



the river, it appears to me, very strenuously demand, is the 

 application to Tweed and its tributaries of the license system. 

 I took occasion, shortly before the passing of the Amendment 

 Act, to urge, through the medium of a provincial paper, atten- 

 tion to this subject. From the views then expressed by me, I 

 see no reason to withdraw, and shall reiterate them in substance, 

 if not in the exact letter. After referring to the favourable 

 working of the license system in its application to the Irish 

 rivers, I proceed to say that I am quite aware of the difference, 

 in point of position, betwixt the salmon-fishings on these rivers 

 and the salmon-fishings of Tweed and our Scottish streams, a 

 large proportion of the former being still in the hands of the 

 Crown, whereas the latter are looked upon as having been trans- 

 ferred to private hands, and made identical, in a great measure, 

 with private property. The operation of the angling license in 

 Ireland is accordingly assisted by this circumstance. There is 

 the inducement to avail one's-self of it in the fact that it is equi- 

 valent to a permission to fish salmon with the rod over the 

 whole range of fishings held in reservation, as inter regalia, 

 Were the license system introduced, say in connexion with a 

 General Salmon Fishery Act for Scotland, the licenses granted 

 under it would simply have the effect of qualifying the parties 

 who hold them. They would not invest them with any real or 

 direct interest, for the time being, in the fishings themselves. 

 The Irish license carries with it, as far as the Crown fishings 

 are concerned, the authority of a permit. A Scotch salmon 

 license could only, under the circumstance of there being no 

 Crown reservations, have the effect of a sporting certificate. 



This difference in the relative position of the Irish and Scotch 

 salmon-fishings certainly appears unfavourable to the institution 

 of the license system in Scotland, but it would not, I feel san- 

 guine, very materially affect its success. The prevailing rage 

 for rod-fishing, encouraged by the prolongation of the angling 



