of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



133 



more than twenty years, under the 7th section of 'The Tweed 

 ' Fisheries Amendment Act, 1859.' 



With regard to bag-nets, on the other hand, which fish in the 

 deep water, where stake nets cannot be used, stress of weather is 

 often pleaded as .an excuse for not observing the weekly close time, 

 and disputes are constantly taking place between the officers of 

 District Boards, and the owners or occupiers of these nets, as to 

 whether or not there is sufficient stress of weather to justify the 

 non-observance of the weekly close time. I am, therefore, inclined 

 to think that it might possibly be expedient, in order to put a stop 

 to these constant disputes, to take a month off the fishing season, 

 in the case of bag-nets, and allow them to fish for the rest of the 

 season without observing any weekly close time. The Select 

 Committee of the House of Lords, who reported upon the whole 

 subject of Fixed Engines in Scotland in 1860, recommended that 

 stake and bag nets should either be subject to the weekly close 

 time, or be wholly removed on the 20th July, that is a month 

 before the termination of the ordinary netting season which the 

 Committee recommended. The alternative of subjecting bag-nets 

 to the weekly close time has notoriously proved a failure, and has 

 given rise to endless wrangles and disputes. Might it not be worth 

 while to try the other alternative of taking a month off their fishing 

 season, and letting them fish on continuously during the months 

 left to them ? 



I have only farther to state that nothing has come under my 

 notice, in the course of my inspection of the Solway and Ayrshire 

 Rivers, to induce me to alter any of the recommendations which I 

 made in my Report on the salmon rivers on the East Coast of 

 Scotland. 



I have the honour to be, 



Your obedient servant, 



ARCHIBALD YOUNG, 



Inspector of Salmon Fisheries for Scotland. 



The Fishery Board for Scotland. 

 Edinburgh, March 1884. 



