SALMON LEGISLA TION IN SCOTLAND. 495 



of fishings should have met and formed District Boards. 

 In some of the most important districts they did meet and 

 boards were duly elected, but in the other districts the 

 parties showed themselves so very apathetic that the Act 

 remained a dead letter on this point. The result was that 

 instead of one hundred and five district boards having been 

 constituted in Scotland, only thirty-six, or about one-third 

 were actually elected ; and small as this proportion was, it 

 has been still further reduced by the lapse of several boards 

 who had neglected to observe the triennial election pre- 

 scribed by the Act, and the number now stands at twenty- 

 five, including Orkney and Shetland, which have recently 

 taken steps to constitute themselves into fishery districts. 

 The Duke of Sutherland is sole proprietor of fifteen rivers 

 in Sutherlandshire, and as such has all the powers of a 

 district board. These fifteen rivers are, so far as manage- 

 ment is concerned, apportioned into three districts (included 

 in the above twenty-five) under the charge of three factors 

 of the Duke in the capacity of clerks. 



There must be reasons for this unsatisfactory and dis- 

 couraging state of matters, and we shall proceed to indicate 

 a few of those apparent. The first thing to which our 

 attention is directed is the membership of the board, and 

 particularly the appointment of a chairman by the Act. 

 It was provided that the Board should consist of three 

 upper proprietors and three lower proprietors (or if less 

 than three of either in the district, of an equal number), an 

 arrangement which seems reasonable and natural so far as 

 regards proportion. But instead of allowing these pro- 

 prietors to elect their own chairman, according to estab- 

 lished usage, the Act went on to declare that the largest 

 proprietor in the district was to be also a member of the 

 board without election, and in virtue of his rental, its 



