184 THE SALMON. 



and the -Acts expressly included in their prohibitions 

 even those engines for which the Crown had granted 

 special permission ; that is, permission not only to fish, 

 but to fish by that particular mode. Thus in an Act of 

 James i. (1424), it is " ordanyt that all crufis and yaris 

 set in fresche watteris, quhar the see fillis and ebbis, the 

 quhilke destroyis the fry of all fisches, be destroyit and 

 put away for thre zeris to cum, notgaynstandand [not- 

 withstanding] ony privileges or fredom geifyn in the 

 contrare." In the same reign, another Act (1477 or 1478) 

 runs thus : — " It is statute and ordained that the acte 

 maid of before be King James the First anent the cruves 

 sett in waters be observed and keiped, the quhilk beiris 

 in effect that all cruves set in waters quhair the sea filhs 

 and ebbis, the quilk destroyis the fry of all fisches, be 

 put away and destroyed for ever mair, notwithstanding 

 all freedome or privUedge given in the contrair." Ten 

 years afterwards, it is " statut and ordand that aU crufiis 

 and fisch-dammys that ar within salt waterys quhar the 

 sey ebbis and flowis be alutly destroyit and put done, 

 alswele thai belongis to our Soveraine Lord as utheris 

 through all the realm e." And in another Act, referring 

 both to cruives in the localities above specified, and to 

 cruives in positions up the rivers, where they were legal, 

 but in the working of which the requirements of the law 

 had not been obeyed, " aU schireffes, baiUies, and stew- 

 ards" are ordered " to destroy, cast-doune, and put away 

 all the said cruives within their bounds incontinent with- 

 out ony delay." Here we see that modes of fishing which 

 had been prosecuted from time immemorial, and prose- 

 cuted under Crown rights for the exercise of those modes, 



