xvi INTRODUCTORY 
years erected his barriers of logs to stop the ascend- 
ing salmon, so that he may scoop out his little supply, 
regardless of the consequences to the river stock. 
The officials who supervise the salmon fisheries of 
the American continent are still opening up those 
Indian dams. The fishing weirs of England and 
the cruive dykes of Scotland are the British pro 
totype of the aboriginal structures; indeed, the 
Gaelic word cruive seems to indicate that branches 
were originally used. They are now stone weirs 
with fishing boxes in the gaps—usually the only 
gaps—left for the descent of the water and ascent 
of the fish. The salmon yairs of the Solway Dee 
are analogous structures in which the leaders or 
walls are still made of wattle. 
Cruive dykes were erected in most Scottish rivers 
in early days, but where owners of such structures 
held also interest in upper waters the dykes were 
for the most part voluntarily abolished on account 
of their extremely injurious influence on the breed- 
ing stock. In 1424 they were abolished by statute 
when set in fresh water “quhair the sea filles 
and ebbis,” and now only some six remain in Scottish 
rivers, only three of which are fished. 
In spite, however, of those ancient statutes pro- 
viding for the preservation of breeding fish, and of 
the more modern regulations as to meshes of nets 
and annual and weekly close times, as well as recom- 
mendations for the reduction of legitimate netting, 
there are those who regard such restrictions, such 
interferences with the liberty of the subject, as 
superfluous and undesirable. In evidence before 
