174 THE SALMON. 



days less than the Scotch close-time ; but the Quarter 

 Sessions and Home Office have power to " extend or 

 vary" the close-time, — an expression which seems of 

 very dubious interpretation. Two extra months — till 

 1st November — are given for rod-fishing. The weekly 

 close-time is from twelve at noon on Saturday to six 

 on Monday morning, being six hours more than given 

 by the new Scotch law. The minimum size of the 

 meshes of nets is fixed at two inches from knot to knot, 

 or eight inches round. All fixed engines are pronounced 

 illegal, wherever placed, with the exception of "fishing 

 weirs and fishing mOl-dams," and of " any ancient right 

 or mode of fishing as lawfully exercised at time of the 

 passing of this Act, by any person, in virtue of any 

 grant or charter, or immemorial usage." There has not 

 yet been time to see to what extent these provisions wiU 

 abet the evil of fixed engines ; but this much is certain, 

 an end is made in England of stake and bag nets, none 

 of which were sanctioned by grant nor by immemorial 

 usage. Not the least of the benefits of the Bnghsh Act 

 of 1861, is that it gives comparative simplicity and 

 uniformity to the Salmon Laws of England, which for- 

 merly were in unworkable confusion. The new Act 

 repealed, so far as relates to salmon, no fewer than 

 tliirty-three old Acts, of which twenty-six were general 

 and seven private. Though the present, therefore, is not 

 the best of all possible laws, it is one good law coming 

 in place of many bad or useless laws. 



In Ireland, up tiU 1842, the fishery laws had been 

 for centuries the same as those of England, though 

 modified and somewhat confused by differences in the 



