NOVEMBER 199 



was never imagined in pre- scientific days that smelts 

 or sparlings were members of the aristocratic family 

 of Salmonidce, until those meddlesome ichthyologists 

 came along, demonstrating that these small fry were 

 closely akin to the lordly forty-pound salmon and the 

 speckled brook trout, in outward token whereof they bore 

 the badge of the clan the little adipose or fatty fin 

 between the dorsal fin and the tail. So when in the 

 Salmon Fisheries Act of 1862 salmon - fishing was 

 defined ' to mean and include salmon, grilse, sea-trout, 

 bull-trout, smolts, par, and other migratory fish of the 

 salmon kind,' it became clear that sparlings came 

 under that definition, and the exclusive right to take 

 them was vested in the owners of salmon-fisheries, and 

 by them could be conveyed to tacksmen or lessees. In 

 such cases and places as this right was enforced, the 

 white fishers, deprived of their immemorial liberty to 

 catch sparlings, appealed to the Secretary for Scotland, 

 who appointed a committee to inquire and report, 

 nominating the present writer as chairman thereof. 

 We could not, of course, vary the application of the 

 Act of 1862 as regards sparlings, which are undoubtedly 

 ' migrating fish of the salmon kind ' ; but we reported 

 strongly in favour of a statutory close-time for the 

 protection of this valuable food fish during the spawn- 

 ing season. This recommendation was subsequently 

 approved and reiterated in the Report of the Royal 

 Commission on Salmon Fisheries, 1902, and it is much 

 to be regretted that legislative effect has not yet been 

 given to these recommendations. Every witness before 

 iny committee spoke of the urgent need for such a close- 



