STATUTE LAWS RELATING TO 



weirs, kydels, or any other engines, be wholly defended 

 for ever ; and that every person that setteth or fasteneth 

 them hereafter to such posts, boats, and anchors, or like 

 thing, continually to stand, as afore is said, and be duly 

 thereof by the course of law convict, shall forfeit to the 

 king Cs. [that is, 1005.] at every time that he is so 

 proved in default : Provided always, that it shall be law- 

 ful to the possessors of the said fisheries, if they be of 

 assize, to fish with them in all seasonable times, drawing 

 and pulling them by hand as other fishers do with their 

 nets, and not fastening or tacking the said nets to posts, 

 boats, and anchors, continually to stand as afore is said, 

 saving to the people their right of fishing." 



The misfortune of this act of parliament is that 

 it can only be enforced by the king's attorney- 

 general, as the fine is to the king ; it is, however, 

 greatly abused, for there is no practice more com- 

 mon than for the fishermen to do that which this 

 act expressly prohibits. I have been an eye-wit- 

 ness to it several times. Salmon move up the 

 rivers on the flow of the tide, generally keeping in 

 the middle, and in the deepest water ; at the proper 

 time after the tide has begun to rise, a net is shot 

 off on one side, and there held generally by a man, 

 and carried by the boat to the other, to which it is 

 fastened, so as to be secured on the one side by the 

 man, and by the boat on the other. This is con- 

 tinued as long as the fishers think necessary ; which 

 is generally about half an hour, more or less. Be- 

 fore the first net is drawn a second is cast off) and 

 remains for the like space of time. Thus they con- 



