estuaries,-have again united to put an end to the sea-fishery also. The proprietors of the Don and the Dee have insti

tuted actions, to have it declared illegal to fish with stake-nets in the open ocean. The proprietors of the Findhorn have commenced proceedings, to put an end to a stake-net fishery on the coast, eight

miles distant from the mouth of their

river. And the upper heritors of the Tay and other rivers, are ready to lend their aid! Such is the state of things at this moment: The actions are in Court; and, though no one will now believe that the question involves any thing but the protection of a highly injurious and impolitic monopoly, the probability seems to be, that if the existing laws shall not be amended by the wisdom of Parliament, the new hopes of the Salmon-fishery will soon be at an end.

The first step towards Parliamentary interference is, as the author remarks, to ascertain distinctly the nature and extent of the evils to be remedied; the chief of which, he thinks, are referrible, 1st, To the defective state of the existing law as to the regulation of the close-time; and, 2d, To the prohibition of the stake-net mode of fishing.

With regard to the first of these, which is in a considerable degree technical, we shall not enter into it at any length. From an examination of the instincts and propensities of the fish, the author shows, that the general regulation, under the statute of 1404, allows the fishery to begin (on the 10th of December) at the very time when it ought to be most strictly fenced; and that the regulations applicable to the Tweed, the North and South Esk, and other rivers, which allow the fishery to continue till the middle of October, "authorise the destruction of the fish, at the moment when, loaded with spawn, they are seeking a place in which to make their deposit." At the same time, he admits, that it is a question of some nicety to determine what particular limits should be assigned to the respective endurance of the fishing and close-seasons; but he thinks, that the present period of closing, agreeably to

the general regulation under the statute of 1404, viz. the 26th of August, is not far from what it should be; and that, with regard to the duration of the close or fence-time, and the period when the fishing should be allowed to re-commence, it should be much later than the statutory period, (the 10th of December,) when the fish are in the very act of depositing their spawn, and for some time after still continue in the upper parts of the rivers, and are at once incapable of exertion and unfit for use. The reasons for this proposed alteration are drawn from the habits of the fish, the time when it deposits its spawn, the period when the ova become animated, and that at which the fry commence their progress to the sea, together with the destruction of the fry, unavoidably attendant on the present modes of fishing, and the consequent necessity, so long as these modes are practised, of greatly prolonging the close-season *.

The author next proceeds to the main object of his Pamphlet, namely, to consider whether the old Scots acts, under which stake-nets have been held to be prohibited, ought not to be repealed. And we may remark, in limine, that there can be no question as to an invasion of private rights, if stake-net-fishing were permitted, as the fresh-water heritors have sometimes maintained. The statutes by which stake-nets are held to be prohibited are public statutes, having no other object in view than the public advantage; and it is impossible the Legislature could ever have taken the Salmon-Fishery under its controul upon any other ground. This was the general view taken by the Court, in advising the Tay case in 1812, several of the Judges, particularly Lords Meadowbank and Gillies, deprecating the very idea of the statutes having been framed for the private interest of individuals, as inexpedient," “absurd," "unjust," "abominable," and as "an imputation on the Legislature t." Nor was the question of

furnished with written instructions, prepared and signed by the present Lord Cringletie, (then Mr Wolfe Murray,) counsel for the lower heritors, and which had previously been communicated to the upper heritors. These persons were instructed, that they "should go up the Tay till they found the fry, and saw them distinctly seeking their way downwards to the salt water; that when the fry were discovered, they should be carefully traced till they change their situation in the water, that is, when they leave the side, or easy water, and go more into the stream; that the fry should then be farther traced and watched minutely, till they disappear entirely; and that, under the point where the fry disappears, between that and the ocean, nets, with very small meshes, should frequently be drawn in the water, between high and low water-marks, in order to prove whether any salmon smolts are to be found in that body of the tide." And they were also instructed, "that the stake-nets should be daily examined, in order to discover whether any salmon fry were to be seen in them." These instructions are quoted, in order to shew the care with which the matter was investigated. The result was a confirmation of what has already been noticed in considering the question as to the closetime ;-that, in their progress to the sea, the fry are so guided by instincts, or affected by obvious physical causes, as invariably to prevent their approach to those parts of the coast where stake-nets are used. They keep at first the easy water at the margin of the river, avoiding the impetuosity of the filum fluminis; but at the point where the margin ceases to be easy water, where the operation of the tide, the flux and reflux, agitates the sides of the stream, they leave the banks, and seek the peace and stillness of the deeper waters in the middle; and thus, without ever afterwards approaching the coast beyond this point,-without being more seen, they find their way, undisturbed and uninterrupted, to the ocean.

This point in the river Tay was found to be near Carpow Bank, immediately below the junction of the Earn with the Tay. Until the fry approached to within half-a-mile, or three-quarters of a mile, of Carpow-Bank, they were seen distinctly at the margin. When they first disappeared, they were found, by trials with the small-meshed net, to be in the mid stream; but a short way farther down, they were so completely in the depth, that they could no longer be discerned. Now, no stake-nets were ever erected in the Tay above Carpow-Bank. And from the very habits and instincts of the fry,

therefore, none could be within the reach of the stake-nets in the Tay.

These habits and instincts, indeed, af ford a general protection to the fry from injury by the stake-nets; for although, in most rivers, it would certainly be pos sible to use such nets, with success, at stations above the point where the fry disappear,-for example, farther up than Carpow-Bank in the Tay,-yet at most places, the coble-net might be used with equal, if not perhaps with greater advantage. It is chiefly in the open sea, and in the wide friths and estuaries, that the superiority of stake-nets is experienced. In the upper parts of rivers, the coble-net may be extended from bank to bank, so as to intercept all the fish which come into them: thus accomplishing all that could be expected from the most efficient stake-net, and at infinitely less expence. In the sea and the friths, however, a more extended apparatus is indispensably requisite, in order to procure such a circuit as will bring the fish within reach of the net; and it is, accordingly, only in the sea and the friths that the full value of the stake-net invention is experienced.

If any thing were wanting to the conviction which the known habits and instincts of the young brood are calculated to produce, it would be furnished by the construction of a stake-net, WHICH IS SUCH THAT IT

CANNOT DETAIN THE FRY.

"The

net does not hang loose, but is extended on stakes, and every mesh is open, presenting a circuit of from ten three inches in length. Now, it is to twelve inches, and a side fully evident that such an apparatus could not injure or intercept the fry, even if they were within its operation. THEY WOULD, ON THE CONTRARY, PASS THROUGH IT AS FREELY AS THE TIDE."

Next, with regard to the spawning fish, although there must be a destruction of these fish, in a greater or less degree at all stations, whatever be the nature of the apparatus employed, still, as in the case of the fry, the result is infinitely more favourable to the stake-nets than to any other. It is known that, both in ascending the rivers, in order to spawn, and afterwards in returning to the the salmon almost uniformly keep the direct course of the mid-channel of the friths and estuaries, where, of course, they have the assistance of the tide, and are out of the reach of

sea,

stake-nets, which never extend to the depth of the mid-channel, or the path of navigation. Accordingly, such fish are seldom to be found at the sea-fishings: "it is in the fresh waters that they are caught in the greatest numbers." By a regular survey of some of the upper fisheries of the Tay, in the month of August 1809, it appeared that the coble-nets there captured forty-six salmon between the 14th and 28th of August, and that of these, twenty-three were red-fish, or fish on their way to the spawning ground. And as to the kelts, or fish that have newly spawned, it was given in evidence in the Tay case, that they are taken in vast quantities by the net and coble fishers-sometimes in cart-loads-and sold at a low price to the poorer class of people. During the same period, the capture of a red-fish, or kelt, at the stake-nets, was a circumstance of rare occurrence. "Can there be conceived," asks the author, "any thing more decisive as to the relative effects of the respective modes of fishing?"

The second objection to the expediency of employing stake-nets in capturing salmon is, that, by means of them, such an immense number of salmon is caught in the sea and in the estuaries, that eventually the species itself may be destroyed. This objection resolves itself into two parts; first, the effect of the stake-nets upon the produce of the river fisheries; and, secondly, the destruction which, it is alleged, must ensue from the employment of stake-nets, to the eventual annihilation of the species.

Now, in regard to the first branch of the objection, which supposes that the river fisheries are seriously affected by the stake-nets, it is assumed, that the fish which are captured

below, would have gone to the upper fisheries, had they not been intercepted. But this is not the fact. The fish which are captured by the stake-nets are not those who would frequent the fresh waters, to which they never resort, except under the impulse of a powerful instinct, and in that case they take the direct course of the mid-channel, and are thus generally beyond the reach of the stake-nets. Many circumstances tend to confirm the fact, that the fish taken by the stake-nets would, if not thus intercepted, have pursued their way back to the ocean. The most remarkable of these is, that the fish may be caught in the ebb-tide, as readily as in the flood, and that, in many nets, the opening of the court or chamber is turned to the ebb. One half of all the fish caught in Tay were taken by ebbnets, or, in other words, when the fish were going down the frith towards the ocean; and there has lately been erected at Kirkside, near Montrose, a stake-net, which has all its chambers to the ebb, thus receiving no fish except what are going out, and yet it captured, during last season, which was generally unproductive, no less than 1700 fish. An ebb-net, erected at Burghead, at the mouth of the Murray Frith, and about eight miles along the open sea-coast, from the river Findhorn, has been equally, or rather more successful.

But farther; the author has shown, that, in the Frith of Tay, where the stake-nets were a considerable numbers of years in full operation, and where their effect on the upper fisheries was the subject of minute and patient investigation, the produce of the latter was not sensibly affected; and that the injury complained of

was wholly imaginary, excepting in so far as the great increase of the supply operated in lowering the market-price of the commodity. It is true, the upper heritors on the Tay alleged, and attempted to prove, that the produce of their fisheries had dedecreased since the introduction of stake-nets; but in this they completely failed; and we would recommend to the careful perusal of all who take any interest in the subject, that part of our author's Pamphlet, where he exposes the fallacy and trickery of the method to which they resorted, in order, if possible, to make out their point, and exhibits a comparative numerical statement of the produce of the Mansfield and Perth fisheries, for ten years prior, and subsequent to 1798. It is not the least successful part of his work, and cannot fail to produce a conviction of the total fallacy of the allegation, that the produce of the upper fisheries had diminished subsequently to the introduction of the new mode of fishing.

It only remains to consider the other branch of the objection, namely, that if the use of stake-nets be allowed, they will be attended with such a prodigious destruction of fish, as eventually to annihilate, or materially affect the species.

This is an objection (says the author) which no one who has any knowledge of the subject will be disposed to urge. It would be quite asreasonable to suppose that the race of the herring or the cod is in

danger, in consequence of the multitudes which are taken, as to believe that any perceptible diminution of the salmon species would arise from the success of the fishery. Every one knows that the herring and the white fish exist in myriads past num. ber;-that they compose the food of the though man vindicates his right to a larger marine animals ;-and that alshare, yet all that he obtains, or indeed all that he could consume, bears no sensible proportion to what are destroyed within the ocean itself. And it is just the same with the salmon. The salmon is not destined for the food of man alone ;-there are hordes of voracious animals in the ocean which continually prey upon it, and of which it composes the principal food. Wherever salmon are to be found, there are these animals

also. At some stations, porpoises may be seen, in vast numbers, rolling along with the tide, in pursuit of their prey ;while seals, again, abound on every rock and sand-bank, as well as in the open sea, and sometimes they even find their way into the nets, and deliberately, in presence of the fishers, destroy the fish. Who will venture to say what are the limits to the destruction effected by these animals? or, in how many such ways, unknown to man, the Salmon is destroyed?

The belief that the increased produce of the fishery, in consequence of the employment of stake-nets, might effect the existence of the species, has been more readily entertained from the facts that, in some rivers, as the Thames and Clyde, where the Salmon-fishery was once successfully prosecuted, scarcely any

that of several others.