of the, Fishery Board for Scotland. 



19 



the 19th section of the English Salmon Fishery Act of 1873, which 

 provides penalties for the sale of fish during the annual close time, is in 

 the following terms : — 



No person shall buy, sell, or expose for sale any salmon, or part of a salmon, 

 between the 3d day of September and the 1st day of February following, both 

 inclusive. And any person acting in contravention of this section shall forfeit 

 any salmon, or part of any salmon, so bought, sold, or exposed for sale, or in his 

 possession for sale, and shall incur a penalty not exceeding £2 for every such 

 salmon or part of any salmon. But nothing herein contained shall apply to any 

 person buying, selling, or exposing for sale, or having in his possession for sale, 

 any salmon which has been cured, salted, pickled, or dried beyond the limits of 

 the United Kingdom, or if within the limits of the United Kingdom between the 

 1st day of February and the 3d day of November in any year, or any clean 

 fresh salmon caught within the limits of the Act, provided its capture by any 

 net, instrument, or device other than a rod and line, if within the United King- 

 dom, was lawful at the time and in the place where it was caught ; but the 

 burden of proving that any clean salmon so bought, sold, exposed for sale, or in 

 the possession of any person for sale, was captured abroad, or lawfully captured 

 within the United Kingdom, shall lie on the person selling, or exposing for sale, 

 or having in his possession for sale any such salmon ; and the burden of proving 

 that any cured, salted, pickled, or dried salmon was cured, salted, pickled, or 

 dried elsewhere than in the United Kingdom, or if within the United Kingdom, 

 then between the 1st day of February and the 3d day of November in any year, 

 shall lie upon the person in whose possession for sale such salmon is found. 



The Tweed Fisheries Act of 1859, section 10, also throws the burden of 

 proof on persons selling or offering for sale salmon caught during the annual 

 close time, that such fish were not taken contrary to the provisions of the Act. 



It would not be difficult, if it were thought convenient and desirable, 

 to frame a short Act for the special purpose of preventing the illicit traffic 

 in unseasonable salmon, which should apply, not only to Scotland, but to 

 Great Britain, or even to the United Kingdom. For though in England, 

 as has been shown, they have more stringent laws against salmon poach- 

 ing than wo have, they might still wish to extend, for example, the 

 powers of search and seizure of unseasonable fish which the Fishmongers 

 Company already possess in London, to the whole of England ; to require 

 the market authorities to enforce within their jurisdiction the Acts relat- 

 ing to the sale of fish ; to strengthen the hands of the Fisheries Depart- 

 ment of the Board of Trade, especially with regard to places not included 

 in any fishery district ; and to apply the Acts restraining the exportation 

 and sale of salmon to trout, wherever a close time for that fish exists. 



AWE DISTRICT BOARD. 



I give the following extracts from the answers to the printed queries 

 sent me by a member of the Awe District Board : — 



The fishermen all say that the take of fish has decreased — cause, destruction of 

 immature fish by < scringing,' consequently the fish are not there to catch ; also 

 the destruction of spawning fish in the upper waters of the Nant, Lonan, 

 Feochan, and Euchar by crofters and farmers. They are sold in Oban, or salted. 

 I see little prospect of stopping this, as people have become lawless through land 

 agitation. With regard to District Boards, he suggests 'that owners under ,£10 

 rental should not be excluded, as they mostly stay at home and would look 

 after work.' He is also in favour of amalgamating the small fishery districts on 

 the West Coast into larger districts, and so enabling them to maintain a steam 

 launch for the prevention of poaching ; and he would have dealers in salmon and 

 sea-trout obliged to take out licenses in the same way as the salesmen of game 

 are. He would, likewise, regulate the working of draft nets, as in the Tweed Acts 

 and the English Acts. As to illegal fishing by yachtsmen, he states ' I have 

 seen them at it, there is little disguise in the matter.' ' Scringing ' is increasing 

 greatly. But if the nets were destroyed and the owners fined, provided the 

 mesh was not the legal size, they would soon give it up as it would not pay. 



