ACTS REGULATING FISHERIES. 163 



salmon fisheries north of the Tweed, we take upon us to 

 hazard a single remark. This act, the result of those ex- 

 aminations which commenced in 1825 before committees 

 of both Houses of Parliament, is a piece of ingenuity which 

 does no great credit to its contrivers. It seems to be or- 

 ganised entirely out of a mass of local statements, of the 

 most interested and contradictory nature. We are not 

 prepared to assert that its effects upon our fisheries are 

 hurtful in the extreme ; but that by them others equally 

 beneficial have been supplanted, it requires no discernment 

 to perceive. The great error of the act of 1828, consists in 

 the regulation with respect to close time, or the fence season. 

 By allowing our rivers to open as early as the 1st of Feb- 

 ruary, a very palpable omission seems to have taken place 

 on the part of the inquiry committees, as to the time when 

 our salmon finish spawning, also whether the number of 

 running exceeds that of return fish during spring, and 

 whether it be not the case, that the balance against the 

 clean of those newly spawned and useless is in the propor- 

 tion of twenty to one, or to that effect. We do not speak 

 of such salmon as are caught in the salt-water estuaries, 

 or with stake nets along the sea-shore ; for these, no doubt, 

 are generally in good condition even during February, but 

 we allude to those taken inland, whereof by far the greater 

 part are fish that have rotted for months in fresh water ; 

 and this leads us to suggest, as a first amendment to the 

 present act, that some leading distinction be made, in point 

 of time, betwixt the opening of fisheries situated at or be- 

 yond the mouths of rivers, namely, in bays or estuaries, and 

 those which exist on their banks, at some distance from 

 the mouth. And as to the periods themselves, it might 

 be recommended, that the stake net, or sea fishing, com- 

 mence on the 15th, not the 1st of February, and that the 

 drag net, or river fishing, begin at least a fortnight later. 

 Also, a material change should take place on some counties 

 with regard to the termination of the open season, and some 

 provision be made for the benefit of such as angle with the 

 line, whose privileges, under the existing statute, are not 

 a little confined. Also we confess freely to an opinion en- 

 tertained by us, that cruive fishings for salmon should be 

 entirely abolished, as by them immense injury is done on 

 many of our northern rivers ; firstly, by the hindrance 

 they present to unmarketable fish in ascending to spawn ; 

 secondly, by their rendering even well-conditioned salmon 



