of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



97 



for the purpose of taking salmon, and were illegal, because their 

 owners had no title to fish for salmon. They write as follows with 

 regard to them : — ' Those using these nets admitted that they had no 

 ' right to fish for salmon, and they claimed no certificates of privilege. 

 * In these circumstances it was contended by them that the Sol way 

 ' Salmon Fisheries Commissioners had no jurisdiction to entertain 

 ' the complaint of Mr Mackenzie. Being directed by Sec. 3 of the 

 ' statute under which we were appointed " to inquire into the legality 

 ' of all engines erected or used for taking salmon," we held that we 

 ' were bound to hear the evidence tendered ; and having heard it, 

 ' were satisfied of the truth of the allegation, that they were erected 

 ' and used for the taking of salmon, and therefore we ordered to be 

 ' removed such of them as we had seen at the period of our visit to 

 ' Annan. The nets are simply small stake nets of the same general 

 ' form as the ordinary salmon stake nets, with covered pockets, and 

 ' the ground selected for fixing them is precisely of the same kind as 

 ' that chosen for the ordinary salmon nets. They are much higher 

 ' than the poke nets above referred to, and hardly lower than some 

 ' avowedly salmon nets fixed elsewhere, but they are much lower 

 ' than the salmon stake nets used in Mr Mackenzie's fishings. They 

 ' are set as near low- water mark as they can be securely fixed. On 

 ' appeal, the Second Division of the Court of Session, without looking 

 ' at the evidence, declined to interfere with the deliverance of the 

 ' Commissioners, who, they held, had a clear statutory duty which 

 ' they were bound to perform.' 



In a recent case brought before Sheriff Hope at Dumfries with 

 regard to these nets, the Sheriff found, by interlocutor dated 7th 

 December 1883, that the nets complained of are injurious to the 

 salmon fishings, and are of an illegal nature, and that the respondent 

 David King or Kean, fisherman, Powfoot, Cummertrees, is not 

 entitled to erect any nets of that description ex adverso of the lands 

 in the Annan District belonging to the petitioners, the Duke of 

 Buccleuch, Sir Frederick Johnstone, and E. D. Mackenzie, Esq. of 

 Newbie. 



The Nith. 



The Nith rises in lofty hills not far from Dalmellington, in Ayr- 

 shire, traverses Nithsdale, and joins the Solway about 3 miles below 

 the town of Dumfries, after a course of 50 miles. It has a drainage 

 area of 435 square miles. Its chief tributaries are the Cargen, 

 the Cluden, the Scaur, the Shinnel, the Menock, the Carron, the 

 Cample, &c. 



Besides salmon and trout, the Nith contains a good many gray- 

 lings, which occasionally grow to a weight of 3 pounds. They are 

 in season in winter. They do not, in general, rise freely to the fly. 

 Very large salmon have occasionally been taken in the Nith, and one 

 of the heaviest ever captured by the rod was caught in 1812 in that 

 part of the river belonging to the estate of Barjarg, by an old poacher 

 of the name of Jock Wallace, who was celebrated for never having 

 done a hand's turn of work in his life, except cutting his own fire- 

 wood, which he generally did in other people's plantations. The 



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