INTRODUCTION. 19 



the knowledge of our ancestors by the Act of 

 James I., we must come to the conclusion that 

 they knew more of the habits of the salmon than 

 was known forty years ago ; besides, for the four- 

 centuries in which this old Act was in force, no 

 stake or bag nets were to be found on our coasts. 

 Other Acts were, from time to time, made for 

 facilitating the ascent of the spawning fish and 

 the descent of the smoults; weirs, cruives, etc., 

 were particularly attended to, so that the fish 

 might have clear way. "Our Sovereign Lord and 

 the Three Estates of Parliament" seem to have 

 looked to the protection of salmon in a national 

 point of view as food for the common people; 

 for far greater protection appears to have been 

 given to the spawning fish and the fry, and the 

 penalties were more severe for infringing the 

 various Acts than at present. Hence we might 

 conclude, from the attention given to these sub- 

 jects, that more was known of the natural history 

 of the salmon by our ancestors than by us. 



It is really astonishing to mark the prejudice 

 and gross ignorance of the natural history of this 

 fish, displayed by practical fishers at the present 

 time some of whom have been for forty years 

 connected with salmon fishings as exhibited in. 



