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Appendices to Second Annual Beport 



4 of ascertaining the validity of the titles held by all owners of 

 ' fixed nets on the Scottish shore of the Solway Firth. 2. The 

 ' abolition of all the fixed nets whose owners cannot produce a suf- 



* ficient title — of course with the consent of the Crown, in whom 

 ' the right to the fishing would vest on no title being produced by 

 ' a private party. 3. The valuing of all the fixed nets with a suffi- 

 f cient title within the estuary lines of the various rivers flowing 

 ' into the Solway Firth, as fixed by the Commissioners under " The 

 ' Salmon Fisheries (Scotland) Act, 1862," say at twelve years' 



* purchase of their average rental for the previous five years, and 

 ' the empowering of the adjacent river proprietors to buy them up 

 ' at that rate for the purpose of removal ; or making compensation 

 ' to their owners in some other way, if the removal of these nets 

 ' shall be deemed desirable. 4. The numbering and registering of 

 ' the fixed nets to which a good title can be produced, situated on 

 ' the shores of the Firth, between the extremities of the estuary lines 

 ' of the rivers falling thereinto, and the prohibition of any addi- 

 ' tional fixed nets in such a situation.' 



The 1st, 2nd, and 4th of these suggestions have since been in a 

 great measure carried out by the appointment of Special Commis- 

 sioners, under the ' Solway Salmon Fisheries Commissioners Act, 

 ' 1877/ who, subject to an appeal to the Court of Session, in- 

 quired ' into the legality of all fixed engines erected or used for the 

 ' taking of salmon in the waters and on the shores of the Solway 

 ' Firth in Scotland, as the same have been fixed under the autho- 



* rity of " The Salmon Fisheries (Scotland) Act, 1862," and in the 



* rivers flowing into the same.' These Commissioners made a pro- 

 longed and careful inquiry into the subject of the fixed nets in the 

 Solway, removed a number of them, and granted certificates of 

 privilege to a still greater number. The result of their labours will 

 be found in the Appendix to the present Report, Nos. I. and II. 



The last step taken towards a settlement of the Solway question 

 was in 1880, when Mr Spencer Walpole and myself were appointed 

 by the Secretary of State Commissioners to inquire into the laws 

 affecting the salmon fisheries on both sides of the Solway Firth, 

 with the view of placing them under uniform legislation. In the 

 course of that inquiry, we visited the rivers on both sides of the 

 Firth, and carefully inspected the various kinds of nets used for the 

 taking of salmon on the Scotch side. We also examined witnesses 

 at Carlisle, Port Carlisle, Boness, Langholm, Annan, Dumfries, 

 Kirkcudbright, and Newton-Stewart ; and, in 1881, we published 

 our Eeport. At its close, we give a summary of the conclusions at 

 which we have arrived. They are as follows : — 



' I. The Acts relating to the Solway, i.e., the Solway Act, 44 

 ' Geo. III. c. 45, and the Annan Act, 4 Vict. c. 18, should be 

 ' repealed. 



' II. The limits of the Solway for salmon fishery purposes should 

 ' include all that arm of the sea which is situated between Scotland 

 ' and England, and which lies east of a line drawn from the large 

 1 house at Carsethorn in Arbigland in the stewartry of Kirkcud- 

 1 bright, to the hotel at Skinberness in the parish of Abbey Holme 

 1 in the county of Cumberland, and west of a line drawn from the 



