20 INTRODUCTION. 



their evidence before the Select Committee of the 

 House of Lords in I860.* We look in vain for 

 anything like the same want of knowledge 

 amongst the proprietors and rearers of stock on 

 the land. They are all alive to ascertain the true 

 history and character of the stock they deal in, 

 and also the best methods of increasing its 

 numbers and value as a marketable commodity. 

 A landowner, who has purchased a property 

 on which there is a small stock of game, when he 

 wants to increase it, does not shoot down what 

 remains, but re-stocks it from other properties 

 where the game is more plentiful, and carefully 

 destroying all the vermin that would prey upon it. 

 A knowledge of the history and habits of the 

 denizens of the water is certainly more difficult to 

 acquire than those of the land; but with regard to 

 the salmon, while in the fresh water at least, this 

 has been accomplished by those who have wit- 

 nessed the conducting of the Stormontfield opera- 

 tions; and all that is wanting for those who 



* Appointed to inquire whether, having regard to the right of pro- 

 perty of the Crown and individuals in salmon fishings on the sea- 

 coasts and in the rivers and estuaries of Scotland, it is just and 

 expedient that any, and what, legislation should take place for the 

 regulation of such fishings ; so far as regards the use or prohibition 

 of bag nets, cruives, and other fixed nets and engines, and so far as 

 x close times or otherwise. 



