Report on Salmon Fisheries. 
' of the salmon kind captured are comparatively few in number. 
* I accept the evidence for the pursuers as the more correct 
' view of the matter. The evidence adduced by them is that 
' of persons, chiefly police constables, who speak from personal 
' knowledge and observation, fortified by notes made at the 
' time of their observations, and at the time reported to their 
* superiors. They have no interest, so far as I can discover 
* (and none was suggested by the defenders), to mis-state or 
* exaggerate the result of their examination of the nets in 
* question. That there may have been a mistake made either 
* in their observation or in the witing out of their reports is, 
* of course, possible. But I take their statement as to the 
* number of salmon and fish of the salmon kind caught in 
* those nets to be substantially correct. The defenders and 
* their witnesses (fishers like themselves) are interested, and 
' have an obvious motive for minimising the number of salmon 
* caught, for on that (in one vicAv of the case) depends whether 
' they are to be allowed to continue the use of the nets. 
* Further, they all speak from memory, having kept no note 
* which can now be produced of the salmon, or fish of the salmon 
' kind, captured by their nets. They also, in my opinion, un- 
' doubtedly exaggerate the quantity and value of the white fish 
' taken by their nets, their motive for that being again obvious. 
' The evidence given as to the capture of white fish by the 
* defender Ferguson struck me as being very unsatisfactory, 
' and any value to be put on his evidence is seriously damaged 
* when that evidence is compared with his returns to the Fishery 
* Board. I am prepared to accept it as proved that the Black- 
* shaw Bank is fairly good feeding-ground for flounders and other 
* white fish, and that such fish; especially flounders, are to be 
' found there. But I am satisfied that if nothing was captured 
* on that bank except the white fish to be foimd there, the whole 
' nets would soon be discontinued ; indeed, would have been 
' discontinued some time ago. I think also that the purpose 
* for which the nets are erected and used is to catch salmon, 
' and not white fish. Mr Young says : — " They (the nets) can 
* " and do take flounders, but that does not suggest itself to me 
' " as the reason of their existence. I think it is the ostensible 
* " reason of their existence ; but the real reason is to take salmon. 
' " That is a thing of which I am convinced from my examination 
' " of them. If I were putting down salmon stake -nets on Black- 
' " shaw Bank, and close to the channel of the Nith, I should 
* " place them precisely in the same position as that occupied 
' " by the paidle-nets." This view is corroborated by the fisher- 
' men themselves. It appears that the site for the nets of the 
' respective fishermen is obtained by their drawing lots for the 
* choice. And it is clear that the choice is influenced by the 
' fitness of the locality for the capture of salmon, and not white 
' fish. Thus the witness Fleming (at one time a fisherman, and 
* noAV a police constable), says : — " In choosing the sites of our 
' " nets, my neighbours and I drew lots for the best places. 
* " We were anxious to get a nice clean bank, and a gutter 
* " from the foreshore, so that there would be something to 
