xviii 
Report on Salmon Fisheries. 
Prohibition of 
fishing in 
lades. 
Definition of 
what consti- 
tutes a fixed 
engine. 
Prohibition of 
the gaff or 
cleek until the 
1st May. 
Power to 
river-watchers 
to take dis- 
eased fish out 
of rivers. 
' (Ireland) Act, 1863/ provides that ' Where a turbine or similar 
' hydraulic machine which may be injurious to salmon, or the young 
' of salmon, in their descent to the sea, is supplied from rivers 
' frequented by salmon, the person owning or using such a machine 
? shall, during the time in which such descent to the sea takes 
' place, provide gratings or other efficient means to prevent such 
' salmon or young of salmon from passing into such machine.' 
6. It might be advisable to insert in any future Act a pro- 
hibition against fishing in any lade belonging to any mill or 
manufactory by any net, engine, or device, under a penalty of £5 
for each offence, and forfeiture of the net, engine, or device used 
in such fishing. It is well-known that a great deal of poaching 
takes place in such lades. This prohibition should not apply, 
however, to the proprietor of the Salmon Fishings in that part of 
the river from which the lade is supplied, or to any one who has 
permission from him. 
7. There is no definition, either in the Act of 1862 or in that of 
1868, of what constitutes a fixed engine. The following definition 
would, it is thought, be unobjectionable, and it would have the 
effect of effectually preventing the use of the deadly and destruc- 
tive hang-net in rivers and estuaries : — ' From and after the 
' passing of this Act, the terms " fixed net " and " fixed engine " 
c . shall respectively mean and include any net or engine used, or 
' which may be used, for the capture of salmon, saving and except- 
■ ing fishing by net and coble, as lawfully used and practised at the 
' time of the passing of this Act.' 
8. There appears to be a pretty general feeling in favour of 
prohibiting the use of the gaff or cleek for landing salmon until 
the 1st May. At present it may be used in all the rivers of Scot- 
land, except the Tweed, during the whole year. Yet it seems 
somewhat inconsistent and absurd to legislate for the preservation 
of kelts, and at the same time to allow them to be lacerated by the 
cleek in landing them. If it is intended to preserve kelts, the 
landing-net or the hand only should be used until, they have left 
the river. The netting season on the Tweed closes on the 15th 
September; and 'The Tweed Fisheries Amendment Act, 1859,' 
provides by its 16th section that • every person who shall, between 
* the 15th day of September in any year and the 1st of May in the 
' year following, in fishing with a rod and line, use any cleek or 
' instrument for landing fish other than a landing-net, shall be 
' liable to a penalty not exceeding £5.' In England, Boards of 
Conservators have power to make a Bye-law prohibiting the use of 
the gaff during certain times of the year.* 
9. In practice, District Boards instruct the river-watchers to 
take diseased fish out of rivers and to bury them above the highest 
flood-mark in cases where the salmon disease has shown itself. 
But there is no specific power in the Acts entitling the District 
Board to give* such instructions, as there certainly ought to be. 
In connection with this subject, it should be mentioned that some 
* Some steps should also be taken to prevent the practice of "sniggling," or, as 
it is called in England, ' ' strokehalling, " which is prohibited under a penalty by 
the English Salmon Fisheries Act of 1873. (Sec my first Report to the Board, 
page 177.) 
