of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



5 



for the capture of white fish, were fitted up to capture and did capture 

 salmon, and were such as to interfere with the salmon fishings of the 

 pursuer. The Court found that the defender's nets were illegal, and 

 granted interdict against the use by the defender of the nets complained 

 of, or of similar nets, both during the open salmon season and during 

 the close time, and ordered the nets to be removed." 



Even if the application of the English Act of 1861 to this part of 

 Scotland had proved insufhcient for dealing with the injury to salmon 

 fisheries by the placing of stake nets at the mouths of the Solway rivers, 

 the difficulty could be met (and I am informed it is preferably met) by 

 the Solway Act of 1804 (44° Georgii III., c. 45). The 9th section of 

 this Act prevents persons who are not owners or occupiers of fisheries 

 from taking fish (whether white or red) unless duly authorised to do so. 



It may, we think, be contended with some reason that stake nets 

 exclusively for the purpose of taking white fish, which on the sand flats 

 of the Solway means flat-fish, do not require to be constructed in the 

 same way as nets for the purpose of taking salmon, and that such nets 

 need not necessarily be placed, without permission, within the boundaries 

 of rivers. 



For the purposes of the Solway Act, 1804, as stated in the 28th 

 section of that Act, "the limits of the mouth or entrance of the river 

 Nith, situate in the county of Dumfries . . . shall for the future 

 be deemed and taken to be and extend from the large house at Carse- 

 thorn of Arbigland . . . , in a line across the said river Nith due 

 east." 



On the 11th May I visited the mouth of the Nith, and within the 

 mouth of the river as specified I counted 20 stake nets. I visited the 

 locality when the tide had ebbed from the nets, and I was able to note 

 that both flat-fish (common dabs and flounders) and salmon were captured 

 by them. The nets stand 6 feet above the level of the sand or mud, 

 being supported by stakes about 7 feet high. The leaders or cross-arms 

 are about 43 to 45 yards long, and are set at right angles to the direction 

 of the river, across the flat banks left bare by the receding tide. At the 

 river end of the cross-arm of each net the pocket or bag is set. This I 

 found to be a rectangular chamber, set to fish either in one or in two 

 directions, and measuring 8| to 10 feet by 4 feet, having a floor of 

 netting and a roof of netting, as in the ordinary salmon fly net. On 

 either side of this rectangular pocket transverse leaders or wings were 

 set, termed the ebb-arm and the flood-arm. These were of less length 

 than the cross-arm, but in the majority of instances the end of one of the 

 wings was attached to the cross-arm of a second net, so that two pockets 

 fished unitedly ; the continual expanse of parallel netting being about 

 90 yards in length. In addition to this formation, many of the pocketi 

 had paidle nets attached to their seaward ends. I examined eight net& 

 minutely, taking measurements, and four of these had paidles. The 

 term "paidle net" is, however, used in the district to describe generally 

 the stake nets with or without the paidle proper. In the evidence led 

 before the Commission on Crown Rights in Scottish Salmon Fisheries it 

 is repeatedly so used. The paidles proper I found to be constructed of 

 five hoops 2 feet 10 inches to 3 feet in diameter, the whole cylindrical 

 structure being about 4 feet long. The inverted mouth, which was 

 suspended with cord, reached to the centre of the paidle. 



I was informed by a member of the District Fishery Board that the 

 fishermen who use these stake nets do so without permission from the 

 proprietor (Lord Herries). [f this is so it would appear that they 

 contravene Section 9 of the Solway Act of 1804. Further, however, it 

 would appear that, from the time of the elaborate judgment of Lord 



