158 SALMON-FISHERY OF SCOTLAND. 



species of the salmo family. Omne magus continet in se mihils. 

 There is no restriction ia the grant to the Salmo salar, or com- 

 mon salmon ; on the contrary, the grant is as general as words 

 can make it. If it were Limited to the Salmo salar, it might 

 be contended that the grilse was not included, for it has never 

 yet been legally proved that the grilse is the young salmon, 

 which Mr Little and other experienced fishers deny; while 

 Sir H. Davy, who was a naturalist as well as an angler, main- 

 tains that the trout called the whitelirig, or fiimock, is the yotmg 

 salmon. If, then, the general grant does not include all the 

 species of the genus, and all the varieties of the species, which 

 of them does it include ? Does it include the grilse ? or the 

 finnock ? If the finnock is, as Sir H. Davy states, the young 

 Salmo salar, how can it be excluded ? Or how be a pertinent 

 of land ? Or how could its destruction amid the other trouts 

 be prevented, if the landowners were to get a right to the 

 trouts ? Besides, if, under the general terms of the grant, the 

 whole species and varieties of the salmo family in the rivers 

 have, as is the case, been possessed for time immemorial by the 

 salmon-fishers, is not that sufficient in law to establish their 

 right to them? We do not see how, after such possession, 

 they can be deprived of them ; nor, until it be clearly estab- 

 lished, by proof, which of these fishes become the Salmo salar 

 (if to the Salmo salar the grant shall be restricted), and which 

 of them contiaue trouts (which it wiU be no easy matter to 

 ascertain), do we see how any of them can be excluded from 

 the general terms of the grant ; nor what title the owners of 

 the lands have to contest the point, it being a question entirely 

 between the owners of the salmon-fishery and the Crown. 



Secondly. — But, exclusive of the argument, that the general 

 grant iacludes all the species and varieties of the salmo, the 

 sakQon-fishers claim the trouts as part and pertinent of the 

 salmon-fishery, under the word pertinents in their grants ; and 

 if they have been possessed, as above stated, by them, for time 

 immemorial, in all the salmon-fisheries in Scotland, both on the 

 coasts and in the rivers, we do not see, we repeat, how such 

 possession can be got over, since in all other cases of pertinent, 

 prescription is conclusive on the subject. The whole case, there- 



