5 16 SALMON LEGISLA TION IN SCOTLAND. 



evidence and authority seems to show conclusively that 

 they are injurious to the real interests of salmon fishery, 

 they should be either altogether abolished or subjected to 

 much more severe regulation than is at present applicable 

 to them. The latter policy has been adopted in Ireland 

 with regard to those few fixed nets which were allowed to 

 remain. The following considerations are urged on behalf 

 of the fixed nets by the proprietors or others interested : 

 (i) that they are established by prescription, and cannot 

 therefore be abolished without compensation ; (2) that to 

 abolish them would seriously affect the food supply of the 

 country from this source ; (3) that though they may 

 diminish the number of fish which reach the rivers, they 

 cause no decline in the total number of fish caught annually, 

 and further that the fish which they catch are in better 

 condition than those in the rivers ; and (4) that no other 

 method of fishing with profit is available in the sea. The 

 first of these pleas is a very plausible one, and presents no 

 little difficulty. Prescription, however, cannot run against 

 statute ; and though fixed nets on the shore are not 

 specifically mentioned in the old statutes, we ought to 

 hold them included, because the spirit of the whole legisla- 

 tion is so clearly and forcibly directed against fishing by 

 means of fixed nets in the " run of the fish," as being unfair 

 and destructive, that we cannot for a moment doubt that 

 the prohibitions would have been extended to the sea, had 

 fixed nets been in existence there at the time, or their 

 existence been foreseen. We must not forget the rule that 

 remedial statutes are to receive a liberal interpretation. 

 These old Acts prohibit all fixed engines in the " run of 

 the fish/' The natural history and habits of the salmon 

 were not then as well known as they are now, and the 

 legislators were totally ignorant of the fact that the sea- 



