the fry that go down in the early part of the season, if they are allowed to go down to the sea, they return the same year; and that we kill them from three to nine or ten pounds weight;" p. 111.

The witnesses seem generally to agree with the prevailing opinion, "That the salmon fisheries in the kingdom are rapidly decreasing in value, owing to the increasing scarcity of fish." But the importance which should be attached to this evidence, will be estimated differently according to the judgment of the reader. Mr Wilson communicates a statement of the number of boxes of fish shipped from the Tweed, or rather for the first thirteen miles from its mouth, from the year 1796 to 1823. In this table we perceive the very great fluctuations of the fisheries, depending on the seasons; the years 1796 and 1815 were as 9.338 to 9.382 boxes; yet 1776 was to 1797 as 9.338 to 12.665 boxes; and 1815 was to 1816 as 9.382 to 11.471. The year 1803 is less than 1819, and 1809 than 1819 or 1821, and but little higher than 1822 or 1823. The box of salmon previous to 1816, contained 6 stones of fish, since that period it contains 8 and 12 stones. In this table the consumpt of the neighbourhood, or what is sent to a distance by carriers and coaches, is not noticed. Hence the table is useless as an index of the actual productiveness of the Tweed, though it may serve to illustrate the character of the exports of Berwick. Mr Bell says, that in all parts of the Tay, the fisheries have decreased, but no statement is produced, p. 20. J. Proudfoot says, "In 1815, 1816, 1817, and 1818, it was a tolerable fishery, and the year 1819 was rather inferior with me; perhaps it might not be less with some; and since 1820, we have had regular bad years successively." But in reference to the influence of the seasons in producing these chan

ges, he says, "For the last two years they have not been so good,” p. 26. In reference to the fishery in 1824, of May, compared with the corresponding period in 1823, he says, "I believe that this season there is more fish caught in the Tay, as yet, than last season," p. 33. There is a statement given by Mr Little, of the relative produce of his Irish fisheries, from the year 1808 to 1823: we shall give a few examples of intervals of ten years. The produce in tons of fish was at the Bann in 1808 and 1818, as 76 to 70; in 1809 to 1819, as 80 to 82; in 1812 to 1822, as 65 to 31; in 1813 to 1823, as 47 to 52. In the Bush fishery, 1808 is to 1818, as 16 to 12; 1809 to 1819, as 9 to 12; in 1812 to 1822, as 8 to 8; and in 1813 to 1823, as 7 to 14: in the Foyle, 1808 is to 1818 as 37 to 44; 1809 to 1819 as 36 to 58; 1812 to 1822, as 48 to 57; 1813 to 1823, as 35 to 50.-Evidence, p. 106. The statements, then, which have been adduced, as exhibiting the increasing scarcity of salmon, may be regarded as entire failures, nor shall we find, that the causes assigned constitute any better proof. These may be reduced to the following.

1. Poaching. The quantity of fish caught by poachers cannot be ascertained in a satisfactory manner; but the following facts throw considerable light on the subject. Mr Wilson declares, that "the number of fish taken in close-time is immense.""I suppose many thousands have been taken out of the Tweed this last winter.""The last winter the bailiffs took upwards of eighty nets out of the river in close-time. It has increased very much within the last three years. "The winters have been very mild, and they can perform those operations much easier in mild weather than when there is frost and snow on the ground, and there are more men out of employment;" p. 11. James Gil

lies declares, "In the year 1820, I saw 250 salmon lying in one cellar in Perth, in the month of September;" p. 135. "I have seen upwards of a hundred killed in one night;" p. 136. In reference to the Tweed, he says, "My brother killed, in one night, 400 of salmon and grilses and upwards, at one hauling-place;" p. 139. And he adds, in reference to the facility of sale, "I never found any difficulty for any that I got; I always found a very ready market for them;" p. 135. And as to the buyers, he says, "They had generally people that took them and kippered them, using saltpetre to make them red, and sent them from Perth to Edinburgh and Glasgow;" p. 136. The evidence indeed in this Report, indicates these poaching operations to be carried on both night and day, occasionally under the very windows of the houses of our nobility, the Castles of Duplin and Kilfauns, and the Palace of Scoon. Where this poaching has been prevented, as it seems to have been done in the Moy at Ballina, Mr Little declares, "I sider that they had no protection for some years previous to 1816; by that protection it has risen from six tons to an average of sixty tons in a season;" p. 106. The same witness adds, "The Dublin market is just as regularly supplied with salmon during the close-season, as it is at any season of the year;" p. 116. How far these facts bear out Sir H. Davy in his assertion, that "the great northern fisheries, and the Irish fisheries, are much less productive than formerly," (p. 145.) the reader must determine. But if we believe the opinion of Mr Little, in reference to the Solway, to be true, and extend it, as supported by the preceding evidence, to all the other great fisheries, "I believe I can prove, from the dealers in salmon in the neigh bourhood of the Solway Frith, that there were more killed in these nets

con

by poachers, during the winter season of last year, than was killed during the proper season for killing salmon ;" then must we conclude, that salmon are as abundant as ever, but poachers now enjoy a greater share than formerly, to the injury of the legal fisher. 2. Stake-nets. This part of the evidence assumes three very different aspects. The river fisheries are said to have decreased, in consequence of the operation of the stake-nets in the estuaries and on the shore. The evidence on this subject exclusively refers to the Moray Frith, and the Frith of Tay. In reference to the Tweed, the decrease cannot be owing to stakenets, for there they do not exist, (Mr Wilson says, "Never; there is not a stake-net within fifty miles of the Tweed;" p. 12.); but the other supposed causes of decrease which exist there, likewise prevail elsewhere. In reference to the Beauly, Mr Wilson declares, that "it has decreased considerably," owing to the stake-nets and yairs in the Moray Frith;" p. 16. With these stake-nets he acknowledges himself very little acquainted, and ignorant of the breadth of the frith where they are placed, or of the quantity of fish which are caught in them. The evidence of the decrease is of a very doubtful character. "I have seen in the books 7000 salmon taken in the Beauly, and I have seen only 1500 or 1600 in a year." But, in reference to the quantity taken last year, he says, "I think between 2000 and 3000 salmon, and about 6000 grilse." Even the rent in 1814 was increased to £50 a-year. His uncle, the lessee, in regard to the concern, has "not a very material interest, for Lovat would take the fishery off his hand when he pleases."-"Lovat, last year, gave an abatement of 20 per cent, and the lessee is to pay a share of the expense of a law-suit against the owners of the stake-nets."

Mr

Berry is the only tenant of the river; he sends his own fishermen, that are employed in the summer, to protect the river in winter;" p. 16-18.

Not more satisfactory is the evidence to prove the destructive tendency of the stake-nets on the river-fishing in the Tay. The general decrease of the Tay is distinctly avowed by Mr Bell; and, while he admits the destruction occasioned by poaching, and killing fry, he seems inclined to refer the evil chiefly to the erection of stakenets, formerly in the estuary, and now only on the sea-shore. When the stake-nets were erected in the frith, it is here asserted that the river fisheries fell off in quantity; that when these were removed, the river fisheries increased. No evidence, unfortunately, is produced to confirm this statement. And it may be mentioned, as a singular circumstance, that, in the process before the Court of Session, the proof of the decrease of the river fisheries was considered by several of the Judges as too imperfect to warrant such an inference, and by none as amounting to demonstration. The evidence for the injury sustained at present by the sea-shore stake-nets, amounts to nothing. Thomas Proudfoot considers the stake-nets set up at Montrose as the cause of the decrease in the river Tay; they "take a great many of the fish that would come into the Tay;" p. 24.; but he is ignorant of the distance of these nets from the Tay; yet he believes they are destructive, because, in his opinion, the fish come from the north-east coast. Mr Bell considers that stake-nets on the shore of the Forth at Ely, would injure the Tay fishings; p. 52. In the absence of all proof, from the returns of river fisheries, we are here presented with some notices of the rents, as illustrating the injury occasioned by the stake-nets. But it appears that Lord Gray's fishing, before the erection of

stake-nets, either in an estuary or upon the shore, was £3000, and that it is now between £3500 and £3700. In the interval, it has been as low as £1205; p. 26. Mr Halliday declares, "When I first came to the Tay, the rents of the upper fisheries were then about £4000 a-year for fifteen of the principal fisheries; and during the time of the stake-nets in the Tay, twelve of these fishings rented for above £6000 sterling per annum." In reference to the cause of the reduction in Lord Gray's fishings, he states, "Because the upper fishers had joined together, and fished them jointly ; before that, there was a separation of companies at Perth, but Mr Bell and Mr Richardson's people fished their fishings together as one company; after that, there was nobody there to oppose them; before that time Mr Bell and Mr Richardson were two opposite companies;" p. 71.

The evidence of a decrease in the Frith of Tay from the abolition of stake-nets, is of a more unequivocal kind. Mr Halliday states, that the total produce of the Tay, when the stake-nets were in operation, amounted to between 50,000 and 60,000 salmon ; and he says, "I do not believe the Tay has produced, since the discontinuance of the stake-nets, more than from 26,000 to 28,000 or 29,000;" p. 71. Mr Johnstone says, "Some of the properties that produced 2000 or 3000 salmon, and even 4000 a-year, are now not fished at all;" p. 42. Before the use of stake-nets, he says that the river fisheries produced annually about 30,000 salmon, and the frith fisheries about 4000; but that, by the use of stake-nets, the frith fishery rose to 30,000. It follows that, since 1812, 26,000 salmon, besides grilses, have annually been lost to the public.

The increase in the produce of the fisheries in those places where stake

nets have been erected, is equally manifest. Mr Johnstone says, "I have caught above 500 salmon and grilses in one stake-net, and at one time, far from any river;" p. 47. "We have caught thousands going away from the nearest river, the Findhorn;" p. 48. In the Esk at Musselburgh, Mr Halliday declares, that had he no stakenets, he would lose four or five hundred fish every year; p. 76. He says of one in the Forth, "I think the first tide after it was put up, we had about twenty-eight or twenty-nine salmon and grilses in it ;" p. 77.

3. Increase of natural foes.-These are limited in the evidence to seals and grampuses. In regard to the seals, Mr Johnstone says, "I have often counted between fifty and sixty seals that lie a little from my house summer and winter." That they feed on the salmon is ascertained. "I have seen them chasing, catching, and eating them;" p. 47. Mr Halliday says, "I have observed from sixty to eighty ⚫ seals in one flock, and I have seen three or four flocks within my view at Balmerino" p. 74. "I have known one seal take six or eight fish in the course of two hours and a-half;" p. 75. The grampuses appear in April, and continue till October. They go up and down with the tide. "There are some hundreds ;” p. 47. Mr Halliday says, "I have seen as much salmon in the -stomach of a porpoise (grampuses are - so called in the Tay) as a man could lift ;" p. 76. In reference to the quantity of salmon consumed by these mammalia, he says, "I have often thought that they destroyed four or five times more than all the fishermen of the Tay;" p. 75. Since the removal of the stake-nets, these depredators have increased; p. 47. 75. Mr Little states, that there are few seals in the Solway (where there are stake-nets), but that they are numerous in Ireland. The grampuses are in all the sea-coasts

around Scotland and Ireland. It is indeed probable, that, in the United Kingdom Seas, grampuses devour many more salmon than the inhabitants.

4. Cultivation of the Land.-Mr Halliday says, "Since the lauds have been so much drained, the rivers fall in so fast, that fish cannot get up to the higher parts of the river so freely as formerly," p. 82; and Mr Little says, "I consider that the draining of the land in Scotland has been as injurious to the fishings as the limeing of it. Formerly the small waters, in consequence of the rains remaining long in the land and in the marshes, were a length of time in rising and falling; now they get up very rapidly, and fall very rapidly. The salmon, when they go up these little rivers to breed, deposit the spawn; and, at a season of the year when the spawn ought to rise from the gravel, it is left dry;" p. 117. These remarks can only apply to the lower and smaller streams of our estuaries, which flow through the cultivated districts, insignificant as salmon breeders, but are inapplicable to the higher branches of our principal rivers, which are fed by the mountains. What drainage has taken place in the Grampians, the Lammermoors, or the Cheviots ?

Having thus stated the facts in the natural history of the salmon detailed in this Report, and the evils prevailing in our fisheries, it is time to advert to the changes in our fishing system which seem to be requisite.

1. Close-time.-The evidence contained in this Report demonstrates the inexpediency of permitting the fishing-season in rivers to commence before the 1st of May. In April, the fry are descending in "tens of thousands," and must be destroyed by the coble-net in great quantities, if used at all. The size of the mesh cannot prevent this destruction, since it becomes oblique while drawing on shore,

and the net passes into folds. But the fry are not the only sufferers. The kelts are likewise captured; and as the females usually descend at this period, their death must be unavoidable. Even in May, both fry and kelts may be destroyed, but the quantity would bear but a small proportion to those which had previously reached the sea. The fishing-season should terminate on the 1st of August. This is the month when the red fish, or those ready to spawn, begin to become nume rous. The condition of the rivers, in reference to floods, varying in different seasons, the fishing-season should be rather early than late, to secure always an abundant supply of breeding fish. Were it not for the habits of the river proprietors, strengthened by their vested rights, the Legislature should prevent all fishings in rivers, as the breeding-ground of salmon, where the fish execute the duties of parturition, and where the young are hatched, but where at present the mother is surprised and taken in her weakness, and her progeny meet an untimely death.

In estuaries, and on the sea-shore, fishing may be practised at all seasons, as in such situations neither red fish, kelts, nor fry, are found. But there is one objection to this freedom, warranted by the habits of the fish.

The fishing-season should begin and end, in all parts of the kingdom, on the same day. It is true, that the condition of the fish varies with the seasons, in different rivers, and in different parts of the same river. But no law could accommodate itself to these variable circumstances. Experience here points out the remedy, having established the nature of the disease. Unless there be one time, poaching will prevail in the close rivers, and the produce will, in the market, compete with the fish from the open rivers. No statute could prevent this smug gling.

2. Establishment of Stake-nets in Estuaries, and on the sea-shore. It has been demonstrated in this Report, that stake-nets do not injure the fry, and do not capture red fish or kelts. -They are the only efficient engine in estuaries and the sea-shore (but from their nature not more so than the coble-net in rivers), and greatly increase the value of the fisheries at those stations. They do not injure the river fishings, because they catch fish not inclined to enter rivers, and at a season when the rivers are in an unfit state to receive them. They capture the fish which would otherwise fall a prey to seals and grampuses, and they serve to reduce the number of the depredators. They are useful, in the estuaries, to the shipping as marks, (pp. 50. 79. 103. 126;) they employ many hands, (pp. 51. 80. 123;) they educate expert seamen, (pp. 51. 81. 104.)

Sir H. Davy assuming (though destroyed in evidence) that salmon belong in fact to the river in which they were spawned, affect a particular ríver, and always return to it, declares, "As the old law of the country was framed upon this principle, salmonfisheries never having been considered as belonging to the coast, all stake-nets should be abolished, as they enable persons having no interest in the river to cut off almost entirely the supply of fish;" p. 145. Without entering into the rather singular dispute in political economy,-whether British subjects should be fed with salmon, or the preference given to seals and grampuses, we shall rather advert to the law and the reason, as laid down by the latter, in reference to stake-nets. Had Sir Humphry Davy examined the old law on the subject, he never could have risked such a groundless assertion. In Magna Charta, he will find these words: "Oranes kidelli (wears, or stake-nets, Coke and Court of Session) deponantur de cetero peni