SALMON LEGISLA TION IN SCOTLAND. 5 19 



interesting to notice the reception which the recently- 

 appointed Government inspector met with at the hands of 

 some of the lower proprietors and tacksmen on the east 

 coast, in his endeavour to obtain information from them, 

 and the two meetings of lower and upper proprietors 

 shortly thereafter held in Edinburgh. Mr. Young, before 

 starting on his tour of inspection of the whole salmon 

 fisheries of Scotland, on which he is at present engaged, 

 sent a list of queries to the various districts. Certain pro- 

 prietors or others, in one county at any rate, met and 

 resolved to afford no information to the inspector, and 

 when he afterwards met them, they even went so far as to 

 put questions to him, which he of course declined to 

 answer. It is thus evident that these parties are afraid of 

 legislation, and that this fear is general among lower pro- 

 prietors is amply confirmed by the proceedings at the 

 meeting of lower proprietors referred to, at which the 

 language was neither conspicuous for moderation nor fair- 

 ness, and formed somewhat of a contrast to the tone 

 prevailing at the subsequent meeting of upper proprietors, 

 which was called in consequence of the action of the lower 

 proprietors. The second resolution of the latter meeting 

 runs as follows : " It is believed that as salmon are de- 

 creasing in numbers by over-netting, all proprietors of 

 fishings would be benefited in many ways by legislation, 

 and that the interests of the upper, as well as of the lower 

 proprietors, ought to be fully considered in any future 

 legislation." ' This is the only reasonable and just view to 

 take of the matter, and the opposition of the lower pro- 

 prietors is a very shortsighted policy. It is surely better 

 to exercise a little forbearance in the present, though at the 

 risk of slightly diminished profits for a time, than to fish 

 in such a manner as sooner or later to depopulate the 



