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Appendices to Second Annual Report 



It is no ligbt or easy task to assimilate the law on the opposite 

 shores of the Firth ; there are so many hostile interests to reconcile, 

 so many statutes, or parts of statutes, to alter or repeal; and so 

 many rights, consecrated by long usage, and sanctioned by judicial 

 decisions, that cannot be rashly interfered with. The proprietors 

 on the English side of the Firth, where fixed engines have been 

 abolished, not unnaturally complain of the stake-nets on the 

 Scottish shore being allowed to remain and intercept the fish on 

 their way to the English rivers ; while the proprietors on the 

 Scottish shore plead the long statutory exemption enjoyed by the 

 ' Water of Solway ' from the prohibition against fixed engines ; the 

 impossibility of successfully prosecuting their fishing except by 

 means of such engines ; the steady supply to the market in the 

 south of Scotland and north of England of a nutritious article of 

 food which these nets afford ; the long period during which they have 

 been used under sufficient titles ; and the consequent injustice of 

 abolishing them without making adequate compensation. 



I shall now proceed to inquire more particularly into the details 

 of this complicated and troublesome question, with the view of 

 ascertaining whether any fair and satisfactory conclusions can be 

 arrived at. 



The precise meaning and extent of the term ' Water of Solway ' 

 is somewhat indefinite and difficult to ascertain. The old Scotch 

 statutes make use of it, but do not define it. Thus the Act 

 1563, c. 68, ' Anent cruives and zaires/ which provides that all 

 ' cruives and zaires that are set of late upon sands and schauldes 

 * far within the water, quhair they were not of before, that 

 ' they be incontinent tane down and put away,' concludes 

 with the following exemption : — ' Providing always that this 

 ' Act on naways be extended to the cruives and zaires being 

 ' upon the Water of Solway but there is no definition of what is 

 held to be the ' Water of Solway/ to which this prohibition against 

 the use of fixed engines is not to extend. The statutory limits 

 of the Solway Firth have also greatly varied. The 28th section 

 of the Solway Act (44 George III. c. 45), which embraced both 

 sides of the Firth, provides that 'Whereas disputes may arise 

 ' touching the limits of the said arm of the sea : Be it therefore 

 ' further enacted, that for the sole purpose of executing this Act, 

 1 and no other, the same shall extend over and across the whole of 

 ' the said arm of the sea which lies eastward from a place called 

 1 the Hotel at Skinberness, in the parish of Abbey Holme, in the 

 ' county of Cumberland, and from thence in a direct line across the 

 ' said arm of the sea, extending northward to the large house at 

 1 Carsethorn of Arbigland in the stewartry of Kirkcudbright, and 

 ' from thence westward along the shore of the said arm of the 

 ' sea which adjoins the county of Dumfries, the stewartry of Kirk- 

 1 cudbright, and the county of Wigtown aforesaid, for two miles in 

 ' breadth, pointing southward from high-water mark down to a 

 ' place called the Mull of Galloway, in the said county of Wigtown, 

 ' and also in like manner extending westward along the shore of 

 ' the said arm of the sea which adjoins the said county of Cumber- 

 ' land, from the Hotel of Skinberness aforesaid for two miles in 



