FRESHWATER FISHERIES ACT. 229 



elusive) was established for freshwater fish in general, not 

 being migratory fish, 1 or pollan, trout or char, on pain of 

 fine up to forty shillings. But the owner of a private 

 fishery, or the conservators of a public one, may dispense 

 with this prohibition as to angling ; and the owner of a 

 private fishery "where trout, char, or grayling are 

 specially preserved " may keep down the inferior fish. 2 

 Conservators have a further power of generally exempting 

 their district with the approval of the Home Secretary. 

 Altogether the exceptions are so large that they seem to 

 leave but little room for the operation of the rule. The 

 majority of freshwater fisheries are private, and as nobody 

 knows exactly what is meant by " specially preserving " 

 trout, &c., the owner of a private fishery has only to say 

 that he preserves the trout in order to go on doing as he 

 pleases. 



Notwithstanding its defects both of form and of substance, 

 however, the Act of 1878 has on some rivers done much 

 good in the hands of willing and able conservators. The 

 key to its policy, which is not evident from the text itself, 

 appears to be furnished by the late Mr. Buckland's evidence 

 when the Bill was before a Select Committee. His 

 doctrine was that the main point was to establish a close 

 time for nets ; and that it was desirable to be very in- 

 dulgent to angling, that it might be the interest of anglers 

 to assist in enforcing the law. 



As early as 1558 an attempt was made for the general 



1 " Those kinds which migrate to or from the open sea." These 

 words raise troublesome questions of natural history ; as to eels, for 

 instance. Probably the framers of the Act were thinking only of 

 salmon and sea-trout. 



2 1878, s. ii. Does this include an occupier who has the general 

 right of fishing ? 



