X PREFACE. 



inches wide, but still wide enough for the entrance 

 of a salmon : in they go here, dozen after dozen, 

 but, to their utter astonishment, they are now in 

 a tank surrounded on all sides with close network ; 

 and as the door they entered by was wide with- 

 out and narrow within, and copious room in the 

 confinement, no door of retreat could be found, 

 therefore, there they must remain until the tide 

 recedes, when they are relieved by the hoop net 

 and murderous knabby of the marauder. This 

 is a specimen of how salmon are allowed to return 

 to their rivers ; and, with such laws, where is the 

 encouragement for those who breed and watch over 

 them in those early years to do so ? This is what 

 I would call injustice to Scotland. An English 

 Parliament has long ago ruined their own rivers, 

 and it looks but too like that they want to deprive 

 poor Scotland of her salmon also. 



The few fish that escape these ugly snares (I 

 must say snares, for they are many, or rather one 

 continuation, with but little interval, from the top 

 to the bottom of the first, and from one lock on 

 the coast to another), the few fish that do escape, 

 find their way through all that multitude of 

 difficulties to the rivers where they were bred : 

 but, from the late period at which the fishings close, 

 a goodly portion of even those who are fortunate 



