196 



execution. Hitherto the upper proprietors protected the fishings, 

 while the lower proprietors have got the fish. It is in the 

 interest of the upper proprietors that additional measures are 

 required." 



From Shiel District the following answer came : " There 

 is no Board; but some authority should exist. Probably, 

 if districts were larger, the formation of a Board would be 

 easier; but I believe inspectors would be better than a Board, 

 every member of which is more or less influenced by his own 

 interests, while inspectors would be influenced only by the public 

 good." 



From Findhorn District the following answer came : " Our 

 Board seldom meets, and the control is much in the hands of 

 the chairman, who occupies that position as having the largest 

 (netting) interest. Of course the tendency is to work against the 

 interests of upper proprietors, if they are conflicting with those 

 of the lower proprietors. The Board must be one-sided, the 

 chairman having the casting vote. But they are too much one- 

 sided, and unnecessarily so." 



From Clyde and Leven District the following answer came : 

 " A Board was constituted, but it was never set working. Pro- 

 ceedings were taken in Court by Sir James Colquhoun, and he 

 got the Board quashed." 



From JDoon District the statement came that the Board, " being 

 found to be unworkable, was allowed to lapse." 



From Conon District the answer was, that " a Board was con- 

 stituted, but it became extinct." 



The following suggestion came from the Lochy District Board, 

 viz. " There should be a staff of marine watchers, provided with 

 a steam launch, to put down the depredations upon salmon com- 

 mitted by trawlers within the southern limits of the district of the 

 River Add, and the point of Ardnamurchan. 



" This provision is necessary, owing to the prevalence of the 

 capture of salmon in the Sounds of Jura and Scarba, Loch 

 Linnhe, the Sound of Mull, and the numerous arms of the sea 

 opening therefrom. These watchers should be under the control 

 of a general Board." 



