174 



STATUTE LAWS RELATING TO 



be repealed. If it be in force, I do not see how 

 these fish-coops and locks can be justified. 



It has often been to me a subject of much sur- 

 prise, that these fish-locks, contrary to the express 

 letter of so many acts of parliament, should ever 

 have been erected ; and still more, that they should 

 have been continued and tolerated for so many years. 

 One is very apt to fancy that certain things which 

 have long existed have had a lawful origin : from 

 having been accustomed to see the fish-locks upon 

 this river from a boy, I always imagined that they 

 were built on some well-grounded authority, and 

 never entertained a doubt of their lawful existence 

 in some shape or other ; but on closely examining 

 this right of erecting fish-locks, I cannot find that 

 there is any ground upon which it can be justi- 

 fied. This is, perhaps, one of the most important 

 branches of this subject, for if a man can cut a 

 channel through his private property to take in an 

 entire river, and in that channel place, under cover 

 and lock, a trap which must take every fish going 

 up and down the river, it is quite absurd either to 

 write or to legislate for the purpose of improv- 

 ing the salmon fisheries. From all that I have ever 

 been able to collect on this subject, it appears that 

 these proprietors of fish-locks have nothing to sup- 

 port their claim but usage or prescription ; and that 

 though they originated in usurpation, yet the heal- 

 ing hand of time has sanctified their illegal creation, 

 However, I do not understand that there is any 



