268 FISHES AND FISHING. 



the offender may be committed to prison, and hard 

 labour, for any time not exceeding three months. 

 The penalty may, at the option of the magistrate, be 

 reduced to one half. 



Any person catching, and offering salmon for sale, 

 of less than six pounds weight, forfeits £5 ; and the 

 same penalty attaches to the buyer and the seller, 

 with forfeiture of the fish. The £5, half to the poor, 

 and half to the informer; distress upon goods for 

 penalty ; if no goods, commitment for three months, 

 unless the penalty be paid. 1st George I., cap. xviii. 

 sect. 15. 



A few observations on the laws regulating angling 

 may be useful. In navigable rivers, the proprietors 

 of the land have no exclusive right, that is, no one 

 can prevent a person from angling from the towing 

 path ; or in a boat close to the private grounds of an 

 individual having such on the bank of a navigable 

 river. 



Navigable canals having a towing path, or foot- 

 way, by the side of them, become, in fact, the King's 

 highway; but I cannot find that the question has 

 been mooted as to the right of angling in a canal 

 made by a company of persons, who have purchased 

 the land through which they have cut the same ; it 

 is reasonable to think that the company could pre- 

 vent any person from angling therein, unless they 



