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Appendices to Second Annual Report 



APPENDIX V. 



EXPLANATORY NOTE by Mr LESLIE, C.E., one of the COMMIS- 

 SIONERS of SCOTCH SALMON FISHERIES, as to the Limits 

 of the SOLWAY FIRTH. 



The following is a statement of the facts relating to the issue of the 

 Bye-Law fixing the limits of the Solway Firth : — 



By the 6th clause, art. 2, of the Act 25 and 26 Vict. cap. 97 

 (Salmon Fisheries Scotland Act, 1862), it is provided that the Com- 

 missioners ' shall fix, for the purposes of this Act, the limits of the 

 J Solway Firth, having regard to an Act passed in the forty-fourth year 

 | of the reign of His Majesty George the Third, cap. 45 (commonly 

 4 called the Solway Act).' 



Mr Ffennell and Mr Leslie understood that by that clause the Com- 

 missioners were left quite free to fix the limits of the Solway Firth, 

 according to the best of their judgment. Mr Eden, however, was of a 

 different opinion, viz., that they were bound to include every thing within 

 the extreme limits fixed by the so-called Solway .Act. 



Messrs Ffennell and Leslie thought that such could not be the case, 

 else there was no occasion for any reference to the Commissioners at all, 

 as in that view the Scotch Act of 1862 need only have confirmed the 

 limits prescribed by the Solway Act. 



There was, moreover, a dubiety as to what were the limits of the 

 Solway Act referred to, as there were two sets of limits described. 



By clause 15 of that Act, a straight line is drawn from the Hotel of 

 Skinberness, in the parish of Abbey Holme, Cumberland, to the large 

 House of Carsethorn of Arbigland in Kirkcudbright, and on that part of 

 the said area of the sea which lies to the eastward of the aforesaid line 

 certain restrictions as to the engines used in fishing are imposed, such as 

 fixing a minimum size for the meshes of nets, providing that any wicker 

 ware or watling shall be not more than six inches in height, and shall 

 have openings, &c, &c. 



By section 28 of the same Act it is enacted that, for the sole purposes 

 of executing this Act and no other, the limits of the said arm of the sea 

 shall extend over and across the whole of the said arm of the sea which 

 lies to the eastward of the line above described ; and thence westward 

 along the Kirkcudbright and Wigtown coasts for two miles in breadth 

 seawards, as far as the Mull of Galloway, and westward along the Cum- 

 berland coast for two miles in breadth seawards, as far as Hodbarrow Point, 

 in the parish of Millam 



Lord Advocate MoncreifT gave as his opinion, that by the expression 

 ' having regard to,' the Commissioners were not bound by any limits laid 

 down in the Solway Act, but might use their own discretion in defining 

 the limits ; and, therefore, Messrs Ffennell and Leslie fixed on what to 

 them seemed, whether considered geographically or nautically, to be 

 really and truly the Solway Firth, viz., everything which is within the 

 fauces terrae, as defined by a line drawn from Ross Head Lighthouse on 

 the north to St Bees Lighthouse on the south, the said line being twenty- 

 six miles in length. Mr Eden not only would not sign the proposed 

 bye-law, as had previously been the practice when one Commissioner 

 differed from the other two, but gave in a remonstrance against it, 

 holding that the Commissioners were bound to take a cord line between 

 the two extreme points laid down by the Solway Act, viz., from the Mull 



