10 THE NATURAL HISTORY AND HABITS 



the side of extermination. Some dozen years ago, I 

 heard one of that class examined on a stakenet case, 

 and he wrought harder than he had ever done in a 

 better cause to turn an actual river into a sea ; and 

 when examined on the descending smolts, he said, 

 " When they reach the tidal influence they seek the 

 bottom of low water channel, and go along deepest 

 water, and do not descend by the sides." He wanted 

 to prove by that that stakenets did not extend to the 

 course that the smolts kept on their way downward, 

 and as these nets did not extend to the low-water 

 channel, they would not catch nor intercept smolts 

 and young fish, or the fry of salmon, on their way 

 down. A jury of Edinburgh merchants could not 

 swallow that theology of the doctor, for their idea 

 was that the calf always followed the cow, and where 

 there was water enough for an old fish there was 

 certainly enough for a young one ; therefore, the 

 doctor's views of sea, rivers, and fish at that time 

 ended in a bottle of smoke. But how unlike, in that 

 part, was the conduct of the doctor to what we see of 

 the Roman Catholic priests in the prosperous times of 

 salmon fisheries : the priests were faithful conser- 

 vators over all rivers near where they were placed, 

 whereas the doctor's care was only a fish from the 

 stake-net for dinner. Lawyers made many proprietors 

 of fisheries believe that the Scotch Acts meant this, 

 that, and the other thing ; that, in these Acts, black 

 was not black, nor white white, and that the fixtures 

 in those days are not the fixtures in our days. But, 

 whatever be the shape, name, or construction of a 

 fixture, it signifies nothing if it is placed there for the 

 interruption and catching of salmon, and must, there- 

 fore, come within the signification of the Act against 

 fixtures, and should at all times have taken effect 

 against such. But it in many cases happened other- 



