OF THE SALMON. 15 



rules were certainly well attended to until the laxity of 

 the Crown allowed others to usurp their right : they 

 allowed those who had no right to do so, to erect 

 means and devices to keep the fish from those that 

 had a right to them from the authority of the Crown. 

 We must always keep in view that lands and salmon 

 fishings in Scotland are two distinct properties, and 

 often we find the land given to one, and the fishings 

 on the same property conveyed to another ; therefore, 

 those that got lands without fishings on the banks 

 of estuaries and firths, in course of time took pos- 

 session of the fishings also : the one followed the 

 example of the other, until now the whole property of 

 the Crown is fully occupied without grant or allow- 

 ance ; and, what is even worse than taking possession 

 of the property is, that they occupy that property in 

 an unlawful manner; they catch the fish there by 

 unlawful and strictly-prohibited inventions ; they 

 deprive the rightful owners, who have the care and 

 protection of the young, and a lawful right to them 

 when they grow up ; in short, they are the root and 

 foundation of the present decline and almost failure 

 in our salmon rivers. But I suspect Mr. Drummond, 

 if he was fully aware of all these facts, found them too 

 cumberous a task to grapple with, and therefore left 

 them out of his bill altogether ; but I have no hesi- 

 tation in saying that some one, sooner or later, must 

 take the task in hand and perform it thoroughly, or the 

 prosperity of our salmon fishings is gone for ever. 



The rapid decline of the salmon was for a time 

 more keenly noticed by naturalists and sportsmen 

 than it was by proprietors who had a more direct in- 

 terest in that decline ; for as long as the failure only 

 touched the pockets' of tenants, and did not affect 

 rents, the case remained unheeded, notwithstanding 

 the many efforts to arouse them to a sensibility of the 



