Report on Salmon Fisheries. 
xiii 
fish-passes to be placed on mill-dams and hecks on the intake and 
tail-lades, against the proprietors of the numerous mill-dams which 
obstruct the course of the Lossie and hinder the free passage of 
salmon. The Sheriff, however, founding on the precedent of the 
case of ' Blair v. Sandeman and Lumsden,' above quoted, held that 
he had no title to prosecute, as the prosecution should be made at 
the instance of the Clerk to the District Board. 
The effect of this state of the law cannot fail to be most disastrous, Evil effects of 
especially on the West Coast of Scotland and in the Inner and Outer ^^^^^J '^^ 
Hebrides, where there are scarcely any District Boards. For it 
just comes to this, that no proprietor or lessee of salmon fisheries 
in these districts is entitled to prosecute for a breach of any of the 
bye-laws ; and when it is considered that these bye-laws regulate 
the limits of estuaries, the commencement and termination of the 
annual close-time, the observance of the weekly close-time, the size 
of the meshes of nets, and the construction and working of cruives, 
mill-dams, water-wheels, and lades, it seems perfectly clear that if 
proprietors of salmon fishings, in districts where there is no District 
Board, are not entitled to prosecute for a breach of any of these 
bye-laws, the due observance of the Salmon Fishery Acts in such 
districts must become an absolute impossibility. 
It is true, indeed, that the 28th section of the Salmon Fisheries 
Act of 1862, and the 30th section of the Salmon Fisheries Act of 
1868, provide that 'all offences under this Act may be prosecuted, 
* and all penalties under this Act may be recovered before any 
' Sheriff, or any two or more Justices of the Peace, acting together 
' and having jurisdiction in the place where the offence was com- 
' mitted, at the instance of the Clerk of any District Board, or of 
' any other person' 
At first sight, it would seem as if the words in italics gave the 
amplest scope for prosecutions; but, read by the light of the 
decisions of the Court, it seems clear that the words ' or of any 
* other person ' must be read as if they meant ' any other person 
' having a sufficient title.' 
The remedy, however, for this unsatisfactory state of the law is Remedy for 
easy ; but it requires further legislation. At present, the 37 th present un- 
section of the Salmon Fisheries Act of 1868 provides that ' Any state of the 
' proprietor of a fishery shall be held to have a good title and 1''^^. 
' interest at law to sue by action any other proprietor or occupier 
' of a fishery within the district, or any other person who shall use 
' any illegal engine or illegal mode of fishing for catching salmon 
' within the district.' 
All that is required to enable proprietors or occupiers of fisheries, 
in those districts where there there are no District Boards, to pro- 
secute for infringement of bye-laws, is to add to the above-quoted 
section the words, ' or who contravenes or fails to observe any 
' hye-laiv' 
The year 1890 has been a bad year for Lochleven, as the Six- ivout fishing 
teenth Annual Report of the Directors of the Lochleven Angling 1890— Loch 
Association shows, from which we give the following extracts : — ^^*^"* 
' The past season opened comparatively early, and during the 
* first half of it gave good promise of being a successful one, but 
' from about the middle of June to the end of the season little sport 
