APPENDIX A 425 



While referring to the subject of fixed engines, I may mention the 

 most recent cases concerning which alterations in previous conditions 

 have been brought about. In 1900 the House of Lords, after a 

 lengthy proof, decided that toot and haul nets and drift or hang nets 

 were fixed engines and must therefore be removed from estuaries. 

 The cases came up from the Tay (Wedderburn v. Duke of Atholl, 

 and Duke of Atholl v. The Glover Incorporation of Perth, 37 S.L.R. 

 696). The question of drift net fishing was closely debated since, 

 unlike the toot nets, these were not anchored in any way, but being 

 extended across the tide-way were allowed to drift with the current. 

 It was held, however, that the drift net acted as a barrier to the 

 ascent of fish and was in essence a fixed engine since it was not 

 moved through the water by the fisherman, so as to take a temporary 

 grasp of a particular stretch of water. The result of this decision is 

 that so far as rivers and estuaries are concerned net and coble 

 fishing, i.e. working the sweep or draught net, is now the only legal 

 method of netting in Scotland. An apparent exception exists in one 

 or two rivers entering the Solway, but this apparently is so because 

 the clauses in the Scottish Acts dealing with fixed engines do not 

 apply to rivers entering the Solway, the corresponding clauses of the 

 English Salmon Fishery Act of 1861 being substituted. 



With regard to the observance of the weekly close time at sea- 

 coast fisheries, a great deal of difficulty has arisen, since the modern 

 development of bag net fishing has come about. Many of the fishing 

 stations are at very inaccessible places on the lonely parts of the 

 Scottish coast, where supervision from the land cannot at all easily 

 be carried out and where patrolling by boat along the coast is too 

 heavy a task for the officers of a District Board. In very many 

 Highland districts, also, no Boards exist and no supervision is 

 attempted. In the past it has not infrequently happened therefore 

 that the " slapping " of nets at six o'clock on Saturday evening has 

 been regarded as altogether unnecessary, as a waste of labour, and a 

 throwing away of profits. In other districts, where supervision was 

 possible, tacksmen very frequently found the sea so rough at six 

 o'clock on Saturday that taking out leaders of bag nets could not be 

 attempted without serious danger. In such localities it is clear the 

 storms come with most surprising regularity. No doubt it is the 

 case that a great amount of destruction is often done to the fisher- 

 men's gear by storms, and bag nets are costly engines. This often 

 produces most unfortunate loss of time and money. The custom 

 has been, however, to leave the nets standing if the leaders could not 



