Report on Salmon Fisheries. 
xv 
When the Inspector was in the Annan district a very efficient Salmon-ladder 
salmon-ladder was being placed on what used formerly to be an jJinTwSe^ 
impassable dam on the Water of Milk, a tributary of the Annan, 
above which there are several miles of fine spawning ground. It 
is stated that a number of salmon have since passed through it to 
the upper waters. 
The last river visited by the Inspector was the Truim, a valuable The Truim, 
spawning tributary of the Spey, into which it falls at Invernahaven, 
6 miles south-west of Kingussie. The Spey District Board com- 
plained that the proprietor of Glentruim had placed an illegal 
artificial obstruction across the bed of the Truim, which not only 
formed a fine lie for salmon but also materially interfered with the 
free passage of fish to the upper waters. There seems to be no 
doubt that the complaint of the Spey District Board is well-founded, 
and that the obstruction is illegal and might be got rid of, at the in- 
stance of the Spey District Board, by an action of Declarator and 
Removal or other legal process. 
It seems to be desirable, now that the Fishery Board have been Fishery Board 
nearly 10 years in existence, to glance briefly at the work which it ^f^J^" 1011 
has done in connection with the Salmon Fisheries. We venture Scotland, 
to think that a reference to the Reports of the Board and of the 
Inspector of Salmon Fisheries will shew not only that all the 
Salmon Fisheries in Scotland, including those in the Inner and 
Outer Hebrides, and in the Orkney Islands, have been carefully 
inspected, but also that the best means of improving the river 
and sea-fisheries have been laid before Parliament in the Annual 
Reports. That many of these improvements have not been carried 
out, owing to various opposing causes, the Board regret. But the 
record remains of what might be done and how to do it, and the 
suggestions made may yet possibly be carried into effect. 
It ought also to be kept in view, with reference to the Board's pro- 
cedure with regard to the Salmon Fisheries, that their powers under 
the Act which creates them and defines their authority are of a 
very limited and indefinite nature. It is true that by the ' Fishery 
' Board (Scotland) Act, 1882/ it is provided by section 5, sub-section 
2, that ' The Fishery Board shall have the general superintendence 
' of the Salmon Fisheries of Scotland, and shall have the powers 
c and duties of Commissioners under the Salmon Fishery Acts, but 
' without prejudice to or interference with the powers of District 
c Boards.' It is somewhat difficult to define — and it is nowhere 
defined or determined — what powers are conferred on the Fishery 
Board by the words ' general superintendence.' Then as to ' the 
' powers and duties of Commissioners under the Salmon Fishery 
' Acts,' it is well-known that the Scotch Salmon Fishery Commis- 
sioners, whose office came to an end in 1882, had very limited 
powers. They could not constitute a district, fix an estuary, inspect 
a river, or report on a complaint from a District Board, without 
first applying to the Secretary of State for permission to do so. In 
fact, they had nothing like the power of any English Board of Con- 
servators under the 39th section of the English Salmon Fisheries 
Act of 1873. Under these circumstances, it would certainly seem 
desirable that the powers and duties of the Fishery Board with 
regard to the Salmon Fisheries, and especially with regard to those 
