504 SALMON LEGISLA TION IN SCOTLAND. 



own unaided efforts, to remove all need for salmon legis- 

 lation at all, by dismissing the genus Salmo to the com- 

 pany of the archaeopteryx, the dodo, and other extinct 

 animals. It seems strange that the Legislature did not 

 recognise the fact which district boards very soon found 

 out, that the powers entrusted to them as a body were 

 actually less than they already possessed in their individual 

 capacity as riparian owners. Consequently, although pro- 

 secutions by district boards would have been a far more 

 suitable and effectual method of stopping or checking the 

 offence, they have become quite unknown, and the polluters 

 have naturally in many instances grown more bold, and 

 become less and less careful to avoid discharging their 

 deleterious matters into the rivers, and less solicitous to 

 adopt means of purifying the water while in their pos- 

 session. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



There are a few unimportant points on which the Act is 

 deficient, which we may perhaps touch upon afterwards. 

 The Act as it stands contains also some deficiencies of a 

 minor degree which have been duly corrected or set right 

 by the subsequent Act of 1868 e.g., the use of a leister 

 for spearing salmon was not prohibited in the daytime ; 

 the articles and appliances used by night poachers, and the 

 fish caught by them could not be seized and forfeited ; 

 repeated offences were not, according to the usual practice, 

 punished by an increase of penalties, graduated or other- 

 wise, except with regard to pollutions ; foul or unseason- 

 able fish could not be seized and forfeited ; and the 

 cumulative penalty of 2 for each fish taken could only be 

 imposed if it could be proved that the fish were taken by 

 the person or persons accused, as well as in his or their 

 possession. 



