548 SALMON LEGISLA TION IN SCO TLAND. 



The Tweed, smolts and parr at any time by rod and line, and not only 

 during the period between ist April and 1st June, and, as 

 before suggested, a limit of length, say six inches, should 

 be added instead of the word " parr." 



The use of the gaff is prohibited to anglers when spent 

 fish are in the river. To this prohibition should be added 

 minnow tackle, which is just as likely to cause fatal 

 injuries as the gaff. Killing of " baggits " should also be 

 forbidden. It might, perhaps, be better to alter section 82 

 of the Act of 1857 in conformity with the law applicable 

 to Scotland generally, which is, that persons cannot be 

 convicted of offences in absence without proof in the same 

 manner as if they were present. As a general rule, non- 

 appearance is held as confession, but the alteration would 



\ 



at least leave no ground of complaint. 



Sections 25 and 26 of the Scotch Act of 1868 should be 

 extended to the Tweed so as to give power to search 

 baskets and creels or other receptacles of fishers. 



Section 39 of the 1857 Act should be amended so as to 

 afford no room for doubt that the fine is exigible for 

 resisting a private person acting in execution of the Act. 



The penalty of 20 imposed by section 73 for catching 

 salmon, &c., while fishing for trout, is out of all proportion 

 to the offence, compared with the penalties for other much 

 worse offences. The enactment ought also to be altered so 

 as to provide for the returning to the water or delivering to 

 the nearest bailiff or constable, any salmon so caught, 

 instead of binding him to deliver it to the proprietor. It 

 is hard for any one who may catch a salmon by accident 

 to know where the proprietor may be, or even who he may 

 be, and if he did know, to require him to go to such 

 personal inconvenience as this rule might entail. 



It is deserving of consideration whether respectable 



