242 



Appendices to Twenty-ninth Annual Repm-t 



Since sparling fishing does not commence in the Wigtown Bay district 

 till J uly, there is little harm likely to result to the smolts, but from the 

 nature of the nets, and the method of the fishing, it is clear that adult 

 salmonidae, and, no doubt, sea-trout smolts (which hang about estuaries as 

 salmon smolts do not do), are almost certain to be caught. 



Past Proposals for Regulation. 



Two Commissions have dealt with the difficulties of the fixed nets of 

 the Sol way. In 1892, Sir Herbert Maxwell's Solway White Fish 

 Commission reported, and in 1896 Mr. Stafford Howard's Commission 

 on the Fisheries of the Solway Firth reported. 



The former proposed the formation of a Board with powers to grant, 

 and to refuse, licences for such nets as might be approved. No person was 

 to be allowed to fish with paidle nets who was not provided with a licence, 

 and no nets were to be licensed except such as were constructed to fish the 

 ebb tide only. Other important recommendations were, that the mesh of 

 all nets was to be that usual in salmon nets, viz., l|-inch from knot to 

 knot, or 7 -inch round, and that the sparling was to be declared a white 

 fish with a special close time. Further, it was strongly recommended that 

 the 25th and 26th Sections of the Salmon Fisheries (Scotland) Act, 1868, 

 should be applied to the Solway, and that Section 9 of the Solway Act be 

 repealed. These last recommendations would have resulted in powers of 

 search for illegally-caught fish, and in the removal of the prohibition 

 against tlie capture of salmon " or any other fish whatsoever" by persons 

 not being the owners of a fishery or those specially authorised by the 

 owners. 



Mr. Stafford Howard's Commission in the main supported the recom- 

 mendations above referred to, but since, in the interval between the two 

 reports, the Sea Fisheries Regulation (Scotland) Act, 1895, had appeared, 

 the position of matters was somewhat changed, since Boards were here 

 proposed for all sea fishery districts in Scotland, and on those proposed 

 Boards — which have never been formed — there was no provision for 

 representation of the salmon fishing interest. While not proposing to do 

 away with the paidle nets, Mr. Stafibrd How^ard's Commission recommended 

 " that in the interest of the salmon fisheries they must be placed under 

 somewhat stringent regulations, and that it will be necessary, or at least 

 desirable, " to provide a comparatively rapid and inexpensive means of 

 determining any disputes that may arise as to the situations in which they 

 are to be allowed." 



With regard to sparling fishing, this Commission also agreed with that 

 of Sir Herbert Maxwell, that the sparling should be regarded for legal 

 purposes as a white fish, and that there should be a close time from 1st 

 February to 1st August. 



It is undesirable that I deal further with the matter here, since the 

 particular points of difficulty are to be inquired into under special 

 arrangement, and will be reported upon to the Board. 



The Solway Dee. 



On examining the doaches of Tongueland, in the Kirkcudbrightshire 

 Dee, I found that since my last visit the big doach had been rebuilt and 

 to some extent altered. Now, instead of the whole box having a horizontal 

 floor at the same level as the sill, and the water having a fall of nearly 

 three feet on its emerging from the cruive box, the natural river bed has 

 been exposed, and now forms the floor of the box. This natural bed is 

 very uneven and rocky, and, on account of its slope, offers a much better 

 chance to ascending fish than the old box-floor. A new sill of iron has 



