546 SALMON LEGISLA TION IN SCOTLAND. 



The Tweed, agree. When the feeling of the people in the district on 

 the question of the right to salmon is taken into considera- 

 tion, it must be seen to be hopeless ever to expect any 

 voluntary assistance from them, and the only remedy is to 

 be found in force. In proof of this may be mentioned the 

 fact ascertained by the Special Commissioners, that the 

 parts of the river which were most poached were precisely 

 those which the proprietors had been liberal enough to 

 throw open to the public for fair rod-fishing. The 

 sympathy of nearly every person seems unfortunately to be 

 with the poachers, and it is discouraging to believe that 

 persons in respectable positions are often aware of the 

 possession by a poacher of a large number of illegally 

 captured salmon without thinking of giving information to 

 the police or bailiffs. Every person who can be proved to 

 have known of the capture or possession of poached fish 

 by any individual, should himself be made liable in the 

 same penalties, as guilty " art and part " with the poachers. 

 If some means of protection were devised by which the 

 names of persons giving information need not be divulged, 

 some assistance might perhaps be obtained from this 

 source. Purchase of salmon taken during close time, as 

 well as poached during open season, should be punishable 

 the same as sale or possession. There might be sale and 

 purchase without possession by the purchaser. 



The difference between the Tweed and the Tay with 

 regard to poaching is very striking. In the latter district 

 the popular sympathies are rather in favour of the law 

 than against it, and the result is seen in the small cost of 

 protection compared with the Tweed, and it no doubt has 

 its effect on the rental likewise. The cost of protection on 

 the Tweed is over 2000 per annum, and seems likely to 

 increase, while on the Tay it is less than 1000, and the 



