SALMON WEIRS. 215 



The regulations of the Fishery Acts are chiefly for the 

 preservation of the fish, and in the interest of the public. A 

 few statutory provisions in these Acts and elsewhere are 

 for the protection of the owners of private fisheries. Those 

 which are made in the public interest may be divided into 

 the following classes : 



1. Securities for free passage of migratory fish up and 

 down rivers. 



2. Restrictions on modes of fishing. 



3. Restrictions on times of fishing. 



4. Constitution of authorities, and administrative rules 

 and powers. 



Or we may sum up these classes still more shortly under 

 catchwords, thus : Weirs Foul fishing Close times 

 Conservators. 



I. As to free passage of fish. 



This is, as above said, an ancient head of the law, though 

 the old laws, not so much because they were defective in 

 themselves as for want of adequate means of enforcing 

 them, did very little good. To understand the meaning 

 and operation of the rules contained in the Fishery Acts we 

 must have before us the general nature of the facts which 

 have made them necessary. For this purpose we cannot 

 do better than adopt the language used by the Fishery 

 Commissioners l in 1870 : 



" Nearly all the great rivers of England are frequented 

 by salmon, a species of migratory fish which can only 

 exist by alternately living in salt and fresh water. The 

 law of their nature is that the fish are bred in the upper 

 and shallow waters of the great rivers and their tributaries, 

 and at the age of about eighteen months they pass down 



1 The judgment was prepared by Mr. James Paterson. 



