Report on Salmon Fisheries. 
' with a roof of netting, so that if a salmon once gets in he cannot 
' get out again. Of late years the leaders to these nets have been 
' made taller and taller. They are now, by my own measurement, 
' from 5 to 7 feet high ; 3 feet would be quite enough to drive the 
' flounders into the nets. Paidle-nets should be done away with 
' altogether, as the flounder fishing is most insignificant as com- 
* pared with the salmon fishing. If it be found impossible to do away 
' with them, they should 1st, be put under the supervision of the 
' District Board. 2nd, No paidle-nets should be erected without 
' direct leave in writing. 8rd, The top, made of netting, should be 
' entirely removed at all times, or else so arranged that the salmon 
' could escape while the flounders were left behind. As matters 
' now are, when the salmon nets are removed in the annual close- 
' time, the stock of breeding fish ascending the river is diminished, 
' and they doubtless destroy many of the descending fry in the 
' spring of the year.' 
The next Special Commission connected with the Scotch shore 
of the Solway was that appointed under the ' Sol way Salmon 
' Fisheries Commissioners (Scotland) Act, 1877.' Of this Com- 
mission Sheriff Macpherson was chairman, and the duties assigned 
to the Commissioners were to ' inquire into the legality of all fixed 
' engines erected or used for the taking of salmon in the waters 
' and on the shores of the Solway Firth in Scotland, as the same 
' have been fixed under the authority of " The Salmon Fisheries 
' " (Scotland) Act, 1862," and in the rivers flowing into the same.' 
The Special Commissioners were perfectly satisfied that the Paidle- 
nets were instruments erected and used for the taking of salmon. 
This is quite clear from the following extract from the printed 
memorandum published by the Commissioners, and signed by 
Sheriff Macpherson as chairman • — ' Being directed by section 3 of 
' the statute under which we were appointed " to inquire into the 
' " legality of all engines erected or used for taking salmon," we 
' held that we were bound to hear the evidence tendered, and 
* having heard it, were satisfied of the truth of the allegation, that 
* they were erected and used for the taking of salmon, and there- 
* fore we ordered to be removed such of them as we had seen at 
' the period of our visit to Annan. 
' The nets are simply small stake-nets of the same general form 
* as the ordinary salmon stake-nets, with covered pockets, and the 
' ground selected for fixing them is precisely of the same kind as 
' that chosen for the ordinary salmon nets. They are much higher 
' than the poke-nets above referred to, and hardly lower than some 
' avowedly salmon nets fixed elsewhere, but they are much lower 
' than the salmon stake-nets used in Mr Mackenzie's fishings. 
' They are set as near low -water mark as they can be securely 
* fixed. On appeal, the Second Division of the Court of Session, 
* without looking at the evidence, declined to interfere with the 
* deliverance of the Commissioners, who, they held, had a clear 
' statutory duty which they were bound to perform.' 
The Third Special Commission connected with the Solway 
Fisheries consisted of Mr Spencer Walpole, now Governor of the 
Isle of Man, and Mr Young, Inspector of Salmon Fisheries. The 
Commissioners were directed to in(juire into the laws affecting the 
