SALMON LEGISLA TION IN SCOTLAND. 521 



proprietors, some of whom are both upper and lower, is 

 easily obtainable to prove the decrease in their fishings, 

 both of fish and rental. 



It cannot be denied that fish taken in the sea are in 

 better condition for food than those caught in fresh water, 

 but is that a sufficient reason for persisting in a mode of 

 fishing which is slowly but surely leading to extermina- 

 tion? The mere recollection of the superiority of sea- 

 caught to river-caught fish will not satisfy us. Besides, 

 it is not necessary to give up sea-caught fish. There 

 are other ways of taking them than by fixed nets, though 

 no doubt there are some places on the coast where no 

 other mode of fishing is properly available, but this was the 

 case before the introduction of fixed nets, and is so, besides, 

 in many rivers. Yet no compensation was given to river 

 proprietors for the abolition of fixed nets. 



The assertion that no other mode of fishing can be 

 followed with profit is subject to qualification. "With so 

 much profit " should be substituted, seeing that the capital 

 is intrenched upon to a greater or less degree. 



Besides, from the point of view of the public interest, 

 these stake and bag nets are objectionable on account of 

 the expense involved in working them, which considerably 

 increases the price of the fish to the buyers. Net and 

 coble fishing costs very much less. 



Many exhaustive inquiries have been instituted by Par- 

 liament on the subject of fixed nets, and the almost invari- 

 able result has been that Commissioners and Committees, 

 even those appointed in the interest and on the instigation 

 of the fixed net proprietors, have recommended the entire 

 suppression of this mode of fishing, and it has been sup- 

 pressed accordingly in England, while all fixed nets erected 



