148 STAKE AND BAG NETS. 



and smolt are protected. Why ? Because they are the young 

 of the salmon. Well, are not grilse the young of the salmon also 1 



Various debates in the House of Commons on the English 

 and Scottish Salmon Fisheries Bills brought out very distinctly 

 the worst phase of the salmon question — viz. the prevalence of 

 stake and bag nets. These machines exercised a baneful in- 

 fluence on the fisheries, and in numerous instances intercepted 

 about one-half of the salmon of particular rivers, before they 

 could reach their own waters. These nets are erected in the 

 tideways, not far from the shore, and as the fish are coasting 

 along towards their own particular spawning-ground, they are 

 intercepted either in the chambers of the bag-net, or in the 

 meshes of the stake-net. It being held that fish taken in the 

 tidal estuaries are in finer condition than those caught in the 

 fresh-water division of the large salmon rivers, they are of 

 course in greater demand, and bring a slightly better price. There 

 is, as we have already noted — ^but the fact needs iteration — 

 no consideration among tacksmen of river fishings for the pre- 

 servation of the fish ; it seems to be a rule with these gentle- 

 men to kill aU they can. It is obvious that, if the upper- 

 water proprietors were to act in the same spirit, and kill all 

 salmon which reached the breeding-grounds, that fine fish, not 

 unaptly called the " venison of the waters," would very speedily 

 become extinct. 



As may be known to most of my readers, the chief British 

 salmon streams, so far at least as productiveness is concerned, 

 are the Tay, the Spey, the Tweed, and the Esk. I have not 

 space in which to describe each of these rivers, but I desire, on 

 • behalf of English readers particularly, to say a few words about 

 the Tay and the Spey. 



The T^y is equal to a basin of 2250 square miles, and it 

 discharges, after a run of about 150 mUes, a greater volume of 

 water than any other Scottish river. " As ascertained by Dr. 

 Anderson, the quantity which is carried forward per second ' 

 opposite the city of Perth, averages no less than 3640 cubic 

 feet." The' main river and its affluents, and their varied tri- 

 butaries, aflford splendid breeding-ground for salmon. As an 

 instance take the Earn. It flows from Loch Earn in the far 

 west of Perthshire, and is, when it leaves the Lake, a con- 

 siderable river, and over the greater part of its course its current 

 is very rapid. A slight drawback to its capabilities as a fish- 

 breeding river is the fact of its sometimes overflowing its banks ; 



