542 SALMON LEGISLA TION IN SCOTLAND. 



FIXED NETS. 



Previous to 1857 several species of fixed nets were in use 

 in the Tweed, of which the most deadly was the " stell net," 

 chiefly used by the lower proprietors, while the upper pro- 

 prietors possessed the " cairn-net." 



As we have already indicated, the upper proprietors 

 commenced an agitation for the withdrawal of the fixed 

 nets in the lower waters, offering at the same time to give 

 up their own, but as no compromise could be effected, the 

 upper proprietors took the matter to Parliament in the 

 shape of the Bill of 1857. After a bitter fight, the object 

 was gained, andjixed nets in the Tweed, as in the rest of 

 the rivers and estuaries of Scotland, are now a thing of the 

 past. In this litigation all the arguments which could 

 possibly be urged on behalf of fixed nets were forcibly set 

 forth, including melancholy pictures of the ruin which 

 would ensue to some of the proprietors, and the robbery of 

 widows and children. Notwithstanding all this, the Legis- 

 lature was convinced that the fixed nets were both 

 injurious to the fisheries and adverse to the spirit of the 

 law, and abolished them without any compensation. What 

 has been the result ? Not ruin, certainly, either to the 

 fisheries or to the proprietors. The rental was in 1857 

 4920. In 1858 it had fallen to 4705, but it immediately 

 recovered itself even at the portions of the river where the 

 stell net had been used, and since then it has gradually 

 increased to 11,224 m I 874, I2 > I 73 m l &7$y an< ^ 

 12,287 in 1876, while it is probably now not less than 

 14,000 or 15,000.* 



Stake-nets and bag-nets are, however, still allowed in the 

 portions of the entrance to the river situated between the 



> 



* The latest statistics have not come to hand. 



