INTRODUCTORY xix 
merits in a case of this kind. These associations are 
usually, it is true, concerned very largely in the pre- 
servation of good salmon angling. But it is to be 
borne in mind that this very preservation of good 
angling plays a most important part in maintaining 
an adequate breeding stock of fish. The number of 
fish captured by rod, although in some districts it is 
very considerable, does not seriously reduce a river's 
stock as indiscriminate netting does. The most 
exhaustive inquiry into the welfare of our salmon 
fisheries conducted by the Elgin Commission and 
reported upon in 1902 resulted in, inter alva, a most 
important recommendation in favour of reducing 
netting in narrow waters where fish congregate after 
leaving the sea. It was decided that there exists 
in every river a point above which it is advisable 
that no netting of any kind be carried on, and that 
the effort should be to allow a proportion of every 
run of fish entering a river to ascend to the unnetted 
waters. 
The increased value of salmon angling makes it 
possible, moreover, to compensate most fully those 
who may be required to cease netting, and without 
any hesitation it may be said that the result of action 
of this kind has already proved most satisfactory to 
all concerned. ‘The Aberdeenshire Dee is a con- 
spicuous example. The annual value of the salmon 
fishing of the district has risen from £7000 to 
£19,000, and the Aberdeen Harbour Commissioners, 
a body possessed of valuable salmon fisheries on the 
coast and in the mouth of the river, and who fish 
for commercial purposes alone, voluntarily subscribe 
