286 THE RELATIONS OF THE STATE WITH 



fact, but because the salmon is, to a great extent, a river- 

 fish, its protection has more readily become practicable, just 

 in the same way as the legislation of 1878 (41 & 42 Viet. 

 c - 39)> which protects fresh-water fish, may be enforced 

 without difficulty. Any jealousy salmon may feel at 

 equal protection being extended to their humbler salt- 

 water cousins, may, perhaps, be appeased by describing the 

 former as " Fluvio-Oceanic." As a legislative fact, it is 

 because salmon for the most part, and fresh-water fish 

 invariably, are found in rivers or estuaries, which, from 

 being limited spaces, are an easy subject of jurisdiction, 

 that they have received more direct protection than salt- 

 water fish. 



The subject of fishermen and their laws will, perhaps, 

 be incomplete without some reference to royal fish and the 

 seal fishery. Royal fish are whales, which are, strictly 

 speaking, mammals, and not fish at all, and sturgeon, 

 comparatively rare in the waters of the United Kingdom, 

 but the subject of a staple Russian fishery ; both of these, 

 if either thrown ashore or caught near the English coast, 

 become the property of the Sovereign. The head of a 

 stranded whale was formerly presented to the King, whilst 

 the tail, with more generosity than grace, was assigned his 

 Consort (i Br. & Had. Comm. 260). It is unnecessary to 

 observe that the Crown is not now exacting in regard to 

 these rights. This may be inferred from the fact that a 

 sturgeon, six feet in length, having been caught during 

 the present month (April, 1883) in Southampton water, the 

 Mayor, after having purchased the prize, forwarded it to 

 Windsor as a due more complimentary than feudal. In 

 1875, the seal fishery, which, like that for whales, is con- 

 ducted from ports on the east of Scotland, became the 

 subject of a statute. Provision was then made (by 38 & 



