520 SALMON LEGISLA TION IN SCOTLAND. 



waters altogether, so far as salmon are concerned. " You 

 can't both eat your cake and have it," as the proverb goes. 



The argument that the abolition of fixed nets would 

 seriously reduce the food supply of the country, supported 

 as it is by the high and unbiassed authority of the Special 

 Commissioners of 1871,* is of course entitled to greater 

 consideration. But there is nevertheless a good deal of 

 evidence on the other side, and it is backed up in many 

 cases by actual proof. Mr. Alexander Jopp, of Aberdeen, 

 published in 1860 a pamphlet, giving, with some useful 

 information as to the fishings generally, a large quantity of 

 valuable statistics relating to the Aberdeenshire fishings, 

 bearing upon this point. It is there shown conclusively 

 that salmon had greatly decreased, both in number and 

 weight, since the introduction of stake-nets, though his 

 results referred more particularly to the rivers, and not to 

 the sea. The number of boxes of salmon annually ex- 

 ported gives some indication to the same effect ; but 

 stronger evidence still is obtained in the fact that several 

 proprietors of fixed nets on the coast very largely increased 

 the rentals of their whole fisheries by giving up the fixed 

 nets. The Duke of Richmond, for example, increased his 

 rental from j 6,000 to 13,000 in eight years, by removing 

 the fixtures at the mouth of the Spey, and the Duke of 

 Sutherland and the Earl of Fife, and also Lord Lonsdale 

 in the Solway, all likewise materially increased their fishing 

 revenues by following the same policy. More evidence, 

 leading to the same result, could be adduced. The case of 

 the Tweed is also very conclusive of the same view. Not 

 only, therefore, do fixed engines diminish the number of 

 fish which reach the rivers, but they diminish the total 

 annual number of fish caught. The evidence of many 

 * See Report, p. xiv. 



