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Appendices to Second Annual Report 



' watcher, or officer of any District Board, or any police officer, to 

 1 search all boats, boat-tackle, nets, or other engines, and all recep- 

 ' tacles whether at sea or on shore, which he or they may have 



* reason to suspect may contain salmon captured in contravention 

 r of the said last mentioned Act, and to seize all salmon found in 

 ' the possession of persons not having a right to fish salmon, and 



* the possession of such salmon shall be held prima facie evidence 

 ' of the purpose of the possessor to contravene the provisions of 

 ' the said last mentioned Act. Provided also that the words " the 

 ' " said recited Act " shall be read, and construed as if they meant 

 ' and included this Act and the Acts recited therein.' Unfor- 

 tunately, the above quoted section does not apply to the Solway 

 Firth where fishing by hang, or, as they are there called whammel 

 nets, is very common and destructive. The reason why this section 

 cannot be enforced on the Solway is as follows : — It is an amend- 

 ment of 7 and 8 Vict. cap. 95, but that Act is itself an amend- 

 ment of 9 Geo. IV. cap. 39, the 14th section of which declares 

 ' that nothing in this Act contained shall extend or be construed 

 ' to extend to the fisheries in the arm of the sea between the county 

 ' of Cumberland and the counties of Dumfries and Wigtown, and 

 ' the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright, or the fisheries in the several 

 ' streams and waters which run into, or communicate with the said 

 ' arm of the sea.' As before stated, almost all the proprietors and 

 tacksmen of salmon fishings in Dumfries and Galloway are in 

 favour of making the 25th section of the Act of 1868 extend to 

 the Solway, where, as the law at present stands, the authorities 

 have no power to put a stop to the ravages of the whammellers in 

 the low water channel of the Firth. Mr Jones, Chief-Constable of 

 Dumfriesshire, who has the charge of the protection of the Annan and 

 Nith, thus describes the operation of whammel and sparling nets: — 



' Whammel Nets. — About 20 years ago two men from the 

 c English coast came into the Annan district, and brought with 

 ' them an open boat and net. , These men immediately began to fish 

 ' in the low water channel of the Solway, from Annan Waterfoot, 

 ' at the head of the ISTewbie fishing grounds, for several miles 

 ' downwards. They operate thus : They fold the net in the stern 

 ' of the boat ; when three-quarter ebb they lay the net out behind 

 ' them as they run across the channel until the net is fully laid out. 

 ' They then allow the net to float down channel, and when a fish 

 ' strikes the net it gets its head through a mesh, and so is taken or 



■ hanged. The end of the net farthest from the boat is fastened to 

 f a stout post so loaded as to keep it upright, and the net has 

 ' sinkers on the one side and floats on the other. This operation 

 ' is continued till close on low water, and, when the tide begins to 



* flow, the net is in the same manner floated upwards, and the work 

 ' continued until about one-quarter flood, at which time the tide has 

 ' got pretty well over the bank. The success of these men 

 ' encouraged others ; and during the last three or four years, not 

 1 fewer than about twenty boats have been so employed, not, 



■ perhaps, every day, but whenever there is an appearance of a run of 

 ' fish. In ordinary states of the water, there are seldom fewer than 

 ' from ten to twelve boats so employed every tide. The ground of 



