Ec.H
fU5Ure

Hector. Alexander

Remarks on tne salmon
fishings of Scotland.

H^

OF

Ec. H

REMAR K S

ON THE

SALMON FISHINGS OF SCOTLAND.

BY

ALEXANDER HECTOR,
it i

ST. CYKUS, MONTROSE,

TENANT OF SALMON FISHINGS IN SCOTLAND AND IRELAND.

502167

3 . \. 50

EDINBURGH: OLIVER & BOYD.

MONTROSE: ALEX. RODGERS.

ABERDEEN : L. & J. SMITH.

1861.

v on THOSE:
j' u i ■ t ;•: i) at t :i i; 6 t a n i> a e d b >' y i c E.

INTRODUCTORY NOTE.

I have been connected with Salmon Fisheries all my lifetime,
my experience in Scotland extending over a period of thirty
years, during six of which I have also been an extensive tenant
of Irish Salmon Fisheries. Several proprietors of valuable
Salmon Fisheries in Scotland suggested to me the propriety of
replying to the many statements recently put forth on behalf of
the Eiver Fishings. It is with some reluctance I have under-
taken to do so, as I feel that I am not so competent for the task
as a more experienced writer would have been. I trust, how-
ever, that my long practical experience as a Salmon Fisher will
entitle my remarks to some weight ; and, therefore, I have
written the following pages in defence of the Sea Fishings, which it
is contemplated by the Lord-Advocate's Bill now before Parlia-
ment entirely to destroy. While an Act of Parliament was passed
so recently as 1842, conferring a right to the holders of all sea-coast
property in Ireland to carry on uninterruptedly what it is now
contemplated to crush in Scotland ; and while stake -nets have
been in use there for 40 years, and bag-nets for 29 years — yet
the Irish Fisheries are in a flourishing condition ; and, in that
period of time, if these fixed nets had produced the injurious
effects attributed to them, it is to be presumed that they must
have caused a decrease as well in Ireland as it is said they have
done in Scotland.

Since the following pages were written, I have observed an
article in the Times, stating that 50 years ago Salmon were to
be had at Ijd per ft. This is an old tradition, nearer 100 years
than 50, when there was a scanty population and no means of
transit, and before the English rivers had ceased to give a supply
of Salmon. The Times should at the same time have informed
the public that, at the period when Salmon was l^d per ft., beef
was from 2d to 3d per ft., and all other commodities in propor-
tion ; and that money bore a different relation to the price of
labour and value of produce than it does now. The Times
further states that Salmon have reached such a price as to be
beyond the means of people in the middle walks of life. I may
state, however, that, by the latest account of sales in London

the price had fallen to Is 4d per lb., which cannot be looked
upon as an extravagant price, especially when compared with
the jfrice paid for all other kinds of fish.

It will be admitted by all Anglers that their applications for
liberty to fish have always been more frankly met by Sea Fishers,
who were also tenants of rivers, than by proprietors or tenants of
rivers only. I at one time held the greatest stretch of Kiver
Fishing on the Dee that was ever held by any one before or
since. It will be remembered by some in the city of Aberdeen
that I issued above 200 cards yearly, for many years, giving a
right to angle free and unconditionally, with a right to the
Angler to retain all the fish he might catch, and the privilege of
a free use of my boats at any station to cross the river. I did
the same on the Xorthesk and Soutkesk when tenant of these
rivers, and continue to this day to give a free right to all to
angle on the lower portion of the "Water of Bervie, where I am
tenant ; and I believe every tenant of Sea Fishings, having
also River Fishings, does the same.

A. H.

ST. CYBUS, Montrose, May, 1861.

REMARKS

SALMON FISHERIES OF SCOTLAND.

During the last twenty-three years, there have been twenty five
Salmon Fishing Bills before Parliament : six of these passed for
Ireland, two for the Tweed Fisheries, and three for the Scotch.

So frequent and annoying1 were these attempts to disturb the
Fishery Laws of Scotland, that the late Sir Eobert Peel depre-
cated " the continual paltering and pottering with the Fisheries
question," wasting the time of the House, and keeping so im-
portant a branch of national industry in a state of continual
uneasiness.

The existing general Act of Parliament (Home Drummond's)
was passed in 1828, after long and patient inquiry, to assimilate
all the Scottish Acts of Parliament, and to establish a uniform close
time, delegating to the proprietors — without the control of any
Central Board — ample powers to govern all matters relating to
their Fisheries — each body having jurisdiction and power to
assess within five miles from the mouth of each river. The
proprietors, therefore, of every river in Scotland for a period of
twenty-eight years have formed a Board for every river, the
Legislature allowing them to assess themselves in such per-
centage as would give effect to the provisions of the Act. Those
who assessed themselves most liberally — such as the proprietors
of the Tay and the Northesk — have reaped their reward by keep-
ing up their Fisheries in a state of productiveness not surpassed
at any period within the present century ; and those who as-
sessed themselves in a small per-centage — such as the proprietors
of the Dee and Don — have, in a corresponding ratio, reduced
the produce of their Fisheries.

The expense of protecting the fish in close time is generally
believed to devolve on the upper Heritors. It is not so. The
assessment is levied on all proprietors ; and as the Sea Fisheries
bring high rents, their proprietors (excepting those of the Spey
aud Tay) bear fully two-thirds of the assessment ; in some dis-
tricts, three-fourths ; and in one district — Bervie, Kincardine-
shire— it is borne exclusively by myself, the tenant, 8 to 10 per
cent. ; and in the South and Northesk districts the proprietors
of what are termed Unchartered Fisheiies have paid the same
rate of assessment as those who have a Crown Charter.

In 1853, I wrote to the Clerks for the rivers and sea-coast
south and north of my Fisheries, and here transcribe tho

replies thereto. From these it will be seen that the Fisheries
that have been efficiently protected are very productive, and that
on the rivers Dee and Don, with an almost nominal rate of about
2 per cent., the Fisheries, as a matter of course, have declined.
But there are other causes affecting these rivers, which will
appear in a subsecment part of this paper.

Copy Letter Mr Robert Botst to Alexander Hector.

" Perth, 3d September, 1853;
" Mr Alexander Hector, Salmon Fisher,

St. Cyrus, Montrose.
" Sir, — Your letter addressed " The Clerk of the Heritors of the Eiver Tay,"
was put into my hands to answer.

" I now, therefore, beg to reply, as Superintendent of the Eiver Tay, &c.
that my salary is =£40 a-year ; but I have a great many other duties besides the
eharge of the water keeping in close time.

" The number employed for that purpose is about 40 men, their wages vary-
ing from 8s to 12s per week, according to circumstances. The amount of
rental is about £10,000, and the rate of assessment last year was 7| per cent.
" I am, Sir, your ob. servt.,

(Signed) " BOBEET BUIST."

Copy Letter Messrs John & Anthony Blaikie, Aberdeen, Clerics to the Heritors
of the River Dee, to Alexander Hector, St. Cyrus, Montrose.

" 245, Union Street, Aberdeen, Aug. 29, 1853.
"Dear Sir, — We are favoured with yours of 27th, and in reply have to
inform you that the Bailiff's wages for protecting the Don during close season
is from £'5 to £0 7s Gd, according to length of tbe portion of river he protects,
and the difficulty in doing so. The Bailiffs have no assistants allowed them
except in bringing up convictions. The Bailiffs have no regular overseer to
compel them to do their duty ; but persons of respectability in the districts
they watch are kind enough to report any manifest neglect of duty. The
Bailiffs are also obliged, if necessary, to continue their vigils until the middle
of February, if the fish have not all descended.
" Yours faithfully,

(Signed) " JOHN & ANTHONY BLAIKIE."

Copy Letter Messrs Jopp & Shand, Clerks to the Heritors of the Eiver Dee, to
Alexander Hector, St. Cyrus, Montrose.

"Aberdeen, 1st September, 1853.
"Dear Sir, — In answer to your letter of the 27th ult., we have to inform
you that the upper Bailiff on the Dee is allowed £10 of wages per annum, and
£5 travelling expenses. There are seven under Bailiffs, three at £7 per annum.
one at £0, and three at £5, besides a man employed about five weeks during,
the season of the fry at 10s per week.

" Yours truly,

(Signed) " JOPP & SHAND."

The Northesk proprietors have a superintendent at £1 per
week, and nine watchmen, at lis per week. Each bailiff
keeps a journal of his perambulations, and notes any inci-
dent that falls under his observation. Besides having the highest
rate of wages in the country, they are allowed free houses and
fire, and arc under siniiliar regulations with the Coast Guard
service. The percentage on the Northesk has been as high as
6 per cent. — threefold that of the Dee and Don — and is never
under 4 per cent. ; so that it is at least always double. The
Tay is nearly treble that of the Dec and Don. The wages on
these rivers st.mds thus: —

Tay — 8s to 12s per week, with £40 to superintendent.

Northesk — 20s per week to superintendent, and lis per week

to each man. All give their exclusive time to this duty, and
are changed from one part of the river to another — their wives
and families being always some miles off.

The Dee superintendent has as wages 10s per week; three men
for the 20 weeks of close season, at 7s per week, one at 6s, and
three at 5s per week.

On the Don the bailiffs have each from £5 to £6 and £7 6s per
season, which is from 5s to 6s 4^d per week — without any super-
vision. They must have some other means of obtaining a liveli-
hood, so that it is utterly impossible they can give atten-
tion to the protection of the river. This is one reason why the
Dee and Don have fallen off so much in their produce.

The Northesk is only about half the size of the Dee or the
Don. Its length is about 35 miles, or little more than one-
third of that of the river Dee ; yet there are more water-bailiffs
on the Northesk than on the Dee, and the proprietors of the Esk
lay out nearly as much money in protecting that river as the pro-
prietors of the Dee and Don together.

Home Drummond's Act therefore has answered all the pur-
poses intended ; and if the proprietors neglected to protect their
own interests in availing themselves fully of its provisions, that
is their fault, nor is it a sufficient reason because they have done
so to demand so sweeping a change entirely based on erroneous
conclusions, ignoring the real causes of the deficiency in certain
rivers.

I quote an instance where similar results followed such neglect
in close season, and I could cite many others of a similar nature.
Finlay, in his " Treatise on the Game Laws and Inland Fisheries
of Ireland," says (Page 170) : —

" In the year 1809 Mr Little purchased a share of the river fishing of the
Moy, that passes Ballina. The gentleman still holding the other portion of
the interest in this fishing happened not to concur with Mr Little in his view
of the necessity of hiring waterkeepers in order to protect the breed of Salmon
from waste. Accordingly, this fishing, which then produced about six ton of
Salmon every year, did not increase, but remained stationary during that year,
the next year, and the year 1811. Mr Little, in the year 1811, bought up the
interest of the other gentleman, and put in operation the plan of protection
which he had before unsuccessfully recommended, and which cost him about
■£350 a-year. The immediate consequence was, that the fishery, which in
1811 afforded but 6 tons of Salmon (that being the average produce of many
years preceding), did, in 1812, produce 44 tons, immediately after 60 tons,
soon rose to 100 tons, and stands at an average of 60 tons from the year 1811
to the present day."

What will those who press forward the Lord- Advocate's Bill,
under the delusion that Salmon roe lies two years in the river
ere it descends to the sea, say to this ? Here is an immediate
result — a rise from 6 tons in 1811 to 44 tons in 1812.

I could cite several similar instances where an increase has
taken place after an efficient system of watching was organised.

We have here cause and effect. The whole question hinges
on the protection of the rivers and the destruction of the
natural enemies of the Salmon, which is followed systematically

in certain districts on the sea-coast of Scotland ; and thus an
ample supply of Salmon is obtained, both in sea and river, where
the river is not polluted by deleterious ingredients.

THE TWEED FISHERIES.

A powerful influence was exerted to carry a Bill through
Parliament in 1858 to cramp the Sea Fisheries — in short, to
carry, without regard to expense, a measure to increase the facility
of angling and to limit the operation of the net. The expense of
resistance was so great that the net fishers had to yield in a
hopeless and expensive contest.

The Committee who took evidence on that Bill said, in their
recommendation to the House of Commons : — " From what the
Duke of Richmond has stated as the beneficial result to his
Grace's Fishings on the river Spey, by his Grace voluntarily
closing the net fishing on the 20th of August, that they (the
Committee) recommend to the House to pass the Bill." The
result was that the Bill did pass, and the net fishers, being de-
prived of a productive part of the season, sustained a heavy loss.
But his Grace the Duke of Richmond, as soon as the Tweed
Bill passed, continued his fishings on the Spey to the last hour
the law allowed him, although the Committee acted on his short
experiment. I was in London in September, 1859, when his
Grace's Salmon arrived — a circumstance that greatly surprised
me. Here are the dates and number of boxes : —

August 2.j 10 boxes.

„ 27 3

28 10

30 8

Sept. 1 2

2 2

Sept. 4 13 boxes.

„ 8 3 „

„ 12 3 „

15 4

„ 17 1 „

„ 19 1 „

His Grace's Fishings of course closed at the legal time (14th
September), but some clays elapsed ere the produce reached the
London market.

MR. ALEXANDER JOPP'S PAMPHLET.

Mr Alexander Jopp, of Aberdeen, is agent for the Proprietors
of the Sea and River Fisheries of the Dee and Don. The sole
aim he has seemingly in view is the discontinuance of bag and
Stake-nets. The proprietors he represents would derive the benefit,
were they the only fishers allowed to carry on their avocation, which
assuredly would be the case if the Lord-Advocate's Bill should
pass into law. The fishings in the Bay of Nigg are now worth
£800, and will yet rise to be worth over £looo a-year. They
are the property of the city of Aberdeen, from which, and their
other properties, many charities are sustained. There was a
fishing in the Bay of Nigg before the use of bag-nets, but these
being stel! nets, fall under the denomination of fixed ones.
The fishings, therefore, in the Bay of Nigg will not be worth one

penny of rent, nor will the coast south of it for a distance of 15
miles, where a small bay then intervenes. The coast is rocky
and precipitous for a further distance of 10 miles, when Bervie
bay intervenes, which, like Stonehaven Bay and the Bay
of Nigg, will also be valueless, although at present I pay £150
a-year for it. The coast is again rocky onwards to the
opening of Montrose Bay, a distance of other seven miles.
Altogether, there will be an entire cessation from, and utter
extinction of, all Salmon Fishing over a distance of 32 miles.
There are about 140 men employed on this part of the coast, and
above £3000 of fishing materials, which would be totally unfit
for any purpose whatever but that for which they are at present
used.

Mr Jopp may with equal propriety contend for the shutting
up of clothiers' shops, except a favourite one, and assume that
such would save expense ; and adopt the course of the market
gardeners of London in the sixteenth century, who petitioned
Parliament " not to repair the approaches to London, nor to
open new ones, as it would allow gardeners at a distance to
come in with produce, and lessen the value of their produce" —
i.e., disturb their monopoly.

Mr Jopp subverts the policy of modern times. The Legis-
lature may as well be asked to bring in a measure to throw
husbandry back to the spade instead of the plough, or to draw
out machinery from vessels because sailing ships cannot compete
with them. In short, its effect will be to silence the machinery
of the twine-spinner ; to lessen the consumption of Manchester
cotton thread, now in general use in the Fisheries since the
Bussian war ; to diminish the boatbuilders' trade ; to cast above
150 indigent women out of bread, dependent on the weaving of
nets ; to withdraw the support given to Industrial Schools, where
the weaving of salmon nets for the Sea Fisheries forms a chief
part of the employment of the pupils. What has heretofore
afforded an endless amount of employment, if now discontinued,
will cast many, who are able now to support themselves, as a
burden on the parishes all round the coast of Scotland.

I cannot, however, believe the Legislature will listen to a
measure which is to cast 2000 fishermen out of bread, and reward
with the empty oyster shell those who have so readily responded
to the call to bear arms in defence of their Sovereign and their
country, who form a cordon around our shores, and must be the
first to confront any enemy that shall attempt to land.

Mr Jopp opens his case by a reference to the Tay, and states that
the stake-nets in that estuary were the sole cause of a decline in
the produce of that river. There is another estuary in Ireland,
of precisely similar extent, where state-nets were erected in
1822 by the Proprietors of the river and estuary of the Fovle.
These stake-nets were introduced into that estuary about the
same time as the stake-nets were used in the basin of the Tay.
Were they withdrawn under the apprehension of spoiling the
Foyle ? No ; but were extended, and continued there from that

time to this day, not diminished in size or number, but legalized
by an Act of the British Parliament, which allows in Ireland
all fixed nets, stakes, bags, and fly-nets, within every estuary,
three-fourths of a mile broad at low water. The following is a
statement of the produce of the Foyle and the Tay for six years :

PEODUCE OF THE FOYXE,

Where Stake-Xets have been in

Existence from 1822 to 1861.

Year 1839 43,181

1810

1*11 52,582

1842 83,106

1*43 02,318

1844 19,387

Add the catch of the Marquis of Done-
gal's fishing, of which two years are
!i : —
1842— M. of Donegal's fishings. ..22,517
Society's fishings 83,106

105,623

1844— Society's fishings 49,387

M. of Donegal's fishings. ..17,, .3,

67,144

PEODUCE OF THE TAY,
Where there are no Stake-Nets.

Year 1839 48,013

1810 44.593

1841 67.078

1812 111,101

1813 81.101

1844 64,663

In the Tay and the Foyle the same
fluctuation takes place, on a compari-
son of the seasons ; and the Foyle
keeps up its produce, notwithstanding
the existence of stake-nets in the
estuary, and in places similar to those
where, in the Tay, they are prohibited
by the decision of the House of Lords.

Xow, I would ask — taking mile for mile in breadth of water
in the tideway, mile for mile in length of estuaries and of rivers
similar in size, as the maps of Scotland and Ireland will show
at a glance — if the stake-nets in the Tay destroyed the Fisheries
in the very short space of two or three years (while the question
was being litigated), how is it that in the Foyle precisely the
same description of fixed nets have not long ere now com-
pletely extirpated the race of Salmon from that estuary ? If the
Proprietors who own these stake-nets found them so ruinous to
their interest, would they continue them a single day? They
adopt the proper remedy. They fish by every means they can
contrive — always, however, in strict conformity with law; but
they don't fish too long, and when they cease they put on an
ample staff of men to guard the whole river, supplementing
liberally the amount that is available from the funds raised by
licenses ; and thus a vast amount of human food becomes avail-
able to the country, and hence the flourishing report set forth of
the Irish Fisheries, because the more you fish the more you must
watch in < on.

Tie- Eel I ries of Ireland, in some districts, have for many
yars been nearly as valuable as the Salmon Fisheries. In Scot-
land, however, IVw Kels are caught ; and l>y a wise provision in
Nature when the Pels return from the rivers to spawn in the sea,
the Salmon are advancing to the shore to spawn in the rivers.
Hence while the on,' is ascending, the other is descending.
W ere it Otherwisi — did both spawn in the rivers — every particle
would be devoured and Salmon become extinct, not from
bag or stake nets, but from a superabundance of their natural
enemies.

When the Wot Dock of Montrose was cleaned, two years
ago, there were above six tons of Eels taken out, and carried off
in railway trucks for manure. If, then, a space of four acres
of a Dock could give such a quantity of Eels, what state must
the Dee be in with such stagnant feeders as the lochs of Skene
and Drum — the former with some thousands of acres teeming
with Eels and Pike. Pike are indigenous to certain rivers ; the
Dee is one. Pike cannot subsist in salt water, but they could
reach the Don by the canal that connected the two rivers, and
which was but recently given over to a Railway Company to
construct a line of railway on its bed. While I was tenant of
the river Dee, I caught in one haul thirty-seven Pike, each
gorged with Smolts ; and as the Dee is the only river in Scotland
that runs from its source to its mouth without a single barrier in
the shape of a dam dyke or cruive dyke, there is the greater
facility for Salmon reaching the ground most infested with their
natural enemies. The wonder is, that the breed of Salmon is not
more diminished (in some rivers) than it is, while such destructive
elements exist, and for which no remedy has been adopted.
The sea fishers south of Aberdeen have not neglected to con-
trive Seal nets, and many Seals have been taken. The Dee and
Don, and many other Scotch rivers, are infested with Otters, yet
no means have been taken to capture them. Although all these
evils admit of a remedy, they have been neglected. These, with
the scanty assessment of about two per cent, levied on Dee and
Don — together not equal to the sum contributed for the protection
of one river not half the size of either — show that there are other
causes, besides the nets complained of by Mr Jopp, for the
scarcity of Salmon in these rivers.

In addition to the above destructive agencies, I quote from the
Montrose Standard of October 12, 1860, an instance of the
injury done to the Salmon fishings by the deleterious ingredients
that are allowed to run into the Southesk ; and the same evil
exists on the Don to a far larger extent : —

" It will be seen by an advertisement in another column that the proprietors
of the salmon fishings offer £20 for the discovery of the perpetrator of the
mischief, and are determined to investigate the affair to the bottom, with a
view to bringing the guilty parties to justice. Mr Johnston, the tacksman of
the fishings, has presented to the proprietors the following report : —

" Between the evening of Thursday, 27th September, and Friday morning,
28th, there was put into the river Southesk, above the Bridge of Brechin, some
destructive material that killed all the fish in the river, of every kind, from
opposite the Paper Mills downwards to the Kinnaird dam-dyke. In every
part of the water a great number of trouts were spawning, or on the fords.
One of the watchmen took out one hundred and nineteen dead trouts ; but the
quantity that must have been taken out by the parties that committed this
act must have been very great. Thousands of salmon and trout fry (some of
them only one inch in length) are lying dead over the whole ground. This is
certainly wholesale destruction ; and it appears as if some party were deter-
mined to put an end to salmon fishings, or fishings of any kind, in that river.
It is plai:; that the poisonous matters are put into the water after dark, for the
purpose of killing the fish The damage done cannot be estimated under
£1000."

We understand that this is not the first time that complaints of such doings
have arisen."

8

Take another river to compare with the Dee and Don, for
illustration. The Northesk is closely fished with bag and fly-
nets, which in effect may be called stake-nets. Some of the upper
fishings of that river yield a higher rental now than they ever
did in the memory of any one living. The principal fishing
among the upper stations, known as Kinnairdy, let

30 Years ago for .£63 per annum, to Mr Taylor.

In 1*44 87 „ to Mr Straiton.

In 1848 105 „ to Mr Hector.

In 18.54 155 „ to Mr Johnston.

Take the next fishing, lower down — Stone of Morphie : —

1833..

• £175 per annum. ..Mr Wilson.

1847..

. £160 per annum... Mr Straiton.

1834..

. 175

do.

1848..

• 160 „

do.

1835-

. 175

do.

1849..

. 160

...Mr Hector.

1836.

. 175

do.

1850..

. 160

do.

1837.

. 175

do.

1851..

. 200

...Mr Johnston

1838-

. 175

do.

1852..

. 200

do.

1839.

. 175

do.

1853..

. 200

do.

1840.

. 250

do.

1854..

• 200 „

do.

1841.

. 250

do.

1855..

. 200

do.

1842.

. 300

, ...Mr Hector.

1856..

• 220

do.

L843.

. 300

, ... do.

1857..

• 220

do.

1844.

. 300

do.

1858..

• 220 „

do.

1845.

. 300

do.

1859..

. 220

do.

1846..

. 160

, ...Mr Straiton.

I860..

• 220

do.

On an aver

..£209 5 22er

Thus, togethe

r, the two upper Fisheries yield a rental,

in 1861, of £.375

30

years ago t

leir united rental only amounted to

238

£137

BERVIE SEA AND RIVER FISHERY.
The rate for watching this river is from 8 to 10 per cent., paid by the tenant.
The rent of it. 5.5 years ago. was £.50 per annum ; it rose to £80, then to £130,
and has been let for the last 20 years to me at £150. This Fishery has risen
in rental, in this century, 300 per cent. A stake-net has been close to its
mouth for 39 years, and three or four bag-nets for more than 30 years.

It will be supposed, from this increase in the Eiver Fishing,
that there must be very few nets on the coast near this river.
On the contrary, there are more stake and bag-nets in Montrose
and the coast immediately north of it, than in any other
fishing, in the same space. The following are the numbers
within ") miles of the mouth of the Northesk : —

48 fly or stake-nets.

7o bag- nets.

■ of fishing, with an increase of £137 on the rental
of the principal upper fishings, while these nets have been in
use for a period of nearly 40 years.

The rental of the Sea I'Miings shows an equally favourable
result. But there are no pike in the Northesk, no steam-tugs
or Bhipping to frighten the fish, nor is the river polluted by
deleft rious ingredients from Paper Works, such as those on the
Don, tin' largest, I believe, in the United Kingdom. The Seals
on 1 1 1 « - coasl are also destroyed, while the river is guarded in
close time by ten men, whose whole time is devoted to this

object. They are well paid, not like those on the Dee, 95 miles
in length, which is guarded by eight men, paid with 7s, 6s, and
5s per week ; or like those on the Don, with 5s to Gs 4|d per
week, without any supervision, and who must, as a matter of
sheer necessity, follow some other employment to earn a liveli-
hood. These causes, it must be obvious to every one, are quite
sufficient to account for the decline of these rivers.

Mr Jopp further argues that it would be beneficial to the
community to have salmon caught as cheaply as possible, i.e.,
stop all fishing but that of those he represents — that all should run
into his cul de sac. Suppose the Lord Advocate to succeed in
carrying his measure, then the Great Northern Eailway Company
might rent the Esks, and the London and North -Western
Eailway rent the Dee and Don, and advertise that they had
rented some of the finest rivers in Scotland now exclusively
reserved for angling, and that they would issue tickets from and to
London, including a month's angling. Such a thing is quite as
likely, and even more so, than one would have thought, twenty
years ago, that Skate, Cod, and Ling, and even Flounders,
would be sent off from Scotland by rail to London. I said so in
1845, before the Committee of the House of Commons ; and my
evidence was looked upon unfavourably by my brethren of the
trade in Aberdeen, but who were among the first to avail them-
selves of the facility in transit.

Within the last few months one of the finest rivers in the west
of Ireland has been let for £30 per rod for twenty-five rods, thus
yielding £750 ; and while Scotland is so much more accessible,
will not the same results follow in this country ? Net fishing
being thus abandoned in the sea, the rivers will be let at fabulous
rents, as is the case elsewhere ; and how is the country to be
supplied with Salmon ? From the tender discretion of anglers, of
course ! But will the Legislature so far depart from stern
justice as to sacrifice property of the value of nearly £2,000,000 —
such is the value of the sea fishings of Scotland — and ruin the
tenants, who have their whole means invested in what the
Legislature has recognised as a lawful pursuit ; while valuable
leases are in existence between landlord and tenant ; and while
so many ice houses and fishing houses have been erected for the
prosecution of these fisheries ? Shall the men, too, be cast out
of bread ? It is but a few years since an urgent demand was made
by Sir Charles Napier for men to recruit his fleet in the Baltic.
I was in correspondence with the Government on this subject.
My letters were handed by the Duke of Newcastle to the Lords
of the Admiralty, who forwarded them to Captain Fanshawe,
of the "Cossack," then at Queensferry ; thereafter they were given
over to Captain Fraser, commanding the Coast Forces. I had
warned the Admiralty that they would not find men from the
coast of Scotland to join the navy. After carefully canvassing the
coast from Berwick to Montrose, Captain Fraser admitted that he
had just got one man ; and now to contemplate the suicidal act in
a time of apprehension from foreign invasion — to cast 2000 able-

10

bodied men out of what has always been recognised as a lawful
pursuit — would surely be an act of injustice to which the country
would not submit, far less to be taxed to carry out the provisions
of the Lord-Advocate's Bill, to destroy industry to promote sport
at so great a sacrifice.

Mr Jopp sets off the late Duke of Bichmond's operations on
the Spey as a favourable result of withdrawing the fixed nets.
The Duke, however, partly attributed the increase in the Spey
to the earlier closing of that river. Mr Jopp should have
made himself aware of the fact that there are four times the
number of stake and bag-nets in Montrose Bay at this moment
that there ever were on the coast of Berwick, in the Tay, and
the Spey, put together. There was a death-wave swept over
this country in 1816-47-48-49. The cholera was sweeping off
the human race, and the murrain laying prostrate the cattle.
The potatoe rot was another serious calamity, as well as the
smut in wheat, all of which prevailed to a great extent during
these years. The vines on the banks of the Mediterranean even did
not escape. Simultaneously with these calamities, there was a
lamentable scarcity of Salmon and other fish, which are not ex-
empt from disease,* for in cutting up over 9000 Salmon the other
year, there was scarcely a fish that was not more or less diseased
in the gut, from some defect in their food — so much so, that the
livers of that quantity offish did not yield above 6 or 8 gallons of
oil, while a like number the following year yielded above 30 gal-
lons. All the rivers in Scotland and Ireland were more or less
unproductive at that time. The tenant of the Spey having
relinquished that fishing, the Duke of Bichmond was lucky
enongB to step in just as the trade was reviving. The Great
Exhibition in 1851, coupled with the demand in Baris, since
that year, for Salmon in a fresh condition, and for our colonists
in Australia in a cured state, all tended to increase the price.
There are many Fisheries now that yield a larger profit than the
entire produce did in 1849 and 1850, so that the Duke of
Bichmond came in for the profit, while his tenant went out of
possession with a loss. I instance the Tay as a case in point.
Tli.- rental in 18515 was £8000 ; in 1861 it is £14,000. There
was a considerable rise between 1849 and 1853. There are as
many bag and stake -nets outside the Tay now as there were at
the time the Duke of Bichmond resumed possession of the Spey.
In Montrose Bay, as well as other parts of Scotland, the Fishings
improved quite ;is much as those of the Spey. At the time in
question there was no railway to Fochabers, and the Spey;fish were
carried a1 greater expense, and not in such good condition as now.
Mr Jopp further asserts that the price of Salmon has risen
considerably. So they have; but so also has the price of all
kinds of white flsh, even greater in proportion than that of Salmon,
not because of the scarcity, but from the increased demand.

cholera firsl made iis appearance in this country in 1832, and in 1835
lumbers of Salmon were found dead in the nets in Montrose Bay, a
circumstance never known to have occurred before.

11

The following is a list of the prices of various kinds of white
fish, with the prices formerly paid for them : —

FRESH FISH.

Haddocks, 20 years ago, at -M to Id each, are now 4d to 6d, or a rise of 400

per cent.
A cod roe now brings more money than cod and roe together did 20 years ago.
Lobsters that were 4d to 6d are now Is Gd to 2s Gd.

CURED FISH.

Herrings, which 20 years ago were 18s to 25s per barrel, are now 30s to 42s.
Smoked haddocks that were sold in London 20 years ago at 20s to 25s per

barrel, are now 50s to 60s.
Pickled cod that sold 20 years ago for 28s to 34s per barrel, are now 60s to 80s.

(I saw these articles sold in London in February this year at these prices.)
Crabs that 20 years ago sold for Id each are now 3d to kl ; yet 21 tons of

these were sent off last fortnight from Fordoun Station (20,000 crabs), and

as many from another station on the Scottish North-Eastern Railway.

Could Mr Jopp therefore expect Salmon always to remain at
the prices they were 20 years ago, while they are despatched in
a fresh state daily, instead of being kept a whole week in ice in
Aberdeen ?

Mr Jopp also states that there are not so many Salmon sent
to London as formerly. This is quite true ; but there are more
Salmon used now in the Koyal Hotel, Aberdeen, on the 1st of
February than there were 20 years ago in the whole of that city.
Glasgow takes off a very large proportion of the Tay fish, so
does Edinburgh, so much so that there are more Salmon used in
Scotland on the first day of the season than what are sent to
London. Besides there is direct communication to every town
in the kingdom, and the fishers send direct to Manchester and
Liverpool, the prices in these places being even generally better
than in London. Mr Jopp founds his statement on the alleged
but erroneous assumption that there are not now so many boxes
sent to London as formerly. The box held from 109 to 112 lbs.
when water conveyance was the only way of reaching London,
now some of the half boxes from the Tay contain nearly 180 lbs.
of Salmon, and many of the fishers there send as many halves as
wholes. He states that he has got the returns from a house in
London where a list is kept of the number of boxes coming into
market. This information is gathered from the Fellowship
Porters of Billingsgate, Avho learn from Piekford and Chaplain's
waggoners the number of boxes, but who are ignorant of their
contents ; and there are not now two boxes alike in weight or
quantity, but every box is packed as full as it can hold. Nor
are the boxes of a uniform size as formerly, so that it is abso-
lutely impossible to arrive at anything like an approximation to
the quantity now sent to London. Besides, there are five curing
works in Scotland, taking off, for the purpose of hermetically
sealing in canisters, above 400,000 lbs. Salmon for exportation
yearly. Mr Jopp just casually alludes to these facts in his
pamphlet, without giving them the prominent place they de-
served. Every kind of skilled labour is now highly rewarded,

12

so that money has changed its nominal value in relation to many
articles of consumption. Besides, between the periods Mr Jopp
setsforth with and closes hisstatistics, thepopulation has increased
in Scotland about one million, hence the consumption of Salmon
must be greatly increased, and the quantity sent direct to London
much less than formerly. Still London, Liverpool, and Manchester
are largely supplied from the Irish Fisheries — not from any great
increase in that country, but because boiling of Salmon in kitts
for London has been discontinued all over Ireland, except by
myself. I am the only one in Ireland who now carries on that
mode of cure.

Eailways traverse every part of Ireland, so that while, five
years ago, Fisheries in my neighbourhood, where the produce
was sold by contract for 3^d to 4d per lb., cannot now be bought
under 6d ; and the consumption of Salmon has diminished all
over Ireland very considerably, it being now sent from the
remotest parts in a fresh state to the English markets in ice.

Mr Jopp quotes the decrease in the size of the fish. This is
easily accounted for ; and let me tell Mr Jopp, as one whose
experience extends over thirty years, and has held the largest
interest in the Scotch Salmon fishings that any one ever had,
excepting only Messrs Hogarth & Co., of Aberdeen, that the
Salmon have not, and are not decreasing in size. They, no
doubt, are so in the Dee and the Don, which may be set down
as twin rivers. The fish pass from the one to the other ; if a
southerly wind prevails, they are found in and near the Don ; in
the case of a northerly wind, they are found in and near the Dee.
When the water-works on the Dee were erected, in 1831, the
quantity of water pumped daily was about 200,000 gallons ; now
it is 1,200,000 gallons — just an increase of sixfold in thirty
years. When the engines ceased, there was a marked increase
on the swell of the river, and when they resumed, an evident
decrease in size took place. The consumption of water is
greatest in summer, when the river is lowest ; so that when the
river is diminished in size, the larger fish refuse to ascend the
stream. With the continual plashing of steam-tugs, and the
vast intercourse of the Port of Aberdeen by steam navigation, it
is only to be wondered why so many Salmon enter the Dee as
now do.* After the period at which Mr Jopp sets out with his
array of statistics, the course of the Dee was changed. Its
moutli is abrupt, and if it was thrown into the Spill-water, it
would improve the lower fishings of the Dee very materially, but
injure to some extent those above.

Mr Jopp complains of the fixed nets doing injury to the river
fishings. The very parties in whose behalf he complains carry
their operations in the river farther than any other fishing
in the United Kingdom. No nets are allowed in Ireland to be

• l x-2!)— No. of vessels in Aberdeen, 221 ; tonnage, 32,858 : steam ships, 3 ;
tonnage, 995 : tag, 1. 1801— No. of vessels, 210 ; tonnage, 02,000 ; steamers,
JO; tonnage, 8614: tugs, 4.

13

fixed to any artificial erection ; and I wonder the Harbour
Trustees of Aberdeen allow the Raik proprietors to take every
fish that comes within a few yards of the pier. The pier is the
property of the Trustees of the Harbour, not that of the fishers ;
and it would have helped the revenue of the city, by increasing the
value of the Bay of Nigg, if this practice had been stopped long
ago, which the Trustees of the Harbour had a perfect right to
do. It is impossible for Salmon to escape landward while such
facilities are allowed ; but, not content with this, these Raik
proprietors, as well as the Midchingle, and even the Pott and
Fords proprietors persisted in having fixed nets in the river Dee.
There was one fieff net at the Rabble Dyke, one on the Skate's
Nose, one at the Craig Lug, and another at the Pott fishing,
fixed securely to the land, and remaining so a whole week, week
after week, and year after year. There are fieff nets at almost
every rock that extends into the river Don, and piers or cairns
run out to intercept and turn the fish — fixtures tenfold more
injurious to those some distance up the river than are bag and
stake nets. While I was tenant of the Dee fishings, I complained
often, through the upper Heritors, of such proceedings ; and Mr
Thomson, of Banchory, who now steps in to laud Mr Jopp for
his sweeping stroke against fixed nets in the sea, was the pro-
prietor who backed up my complaint against these fixed nets ia
the river. Mr Jopp cannot have forgotten the cairn his men were
raising at the Fords — casting shingle into the very bed of the river,
with horses and carts and harrows for spreading it — when Mr
Thomson threatened to raise an action at law, which led to its
discontinuance, but not until there was a sufficient accumulation
of gravel raised on which to erect a tripod, by which means the
upper fishings were greatly injured. Nor can Mr Thomson, of
Banchory, forget, notwithstanding his statement the other day
as chairman of the meeting of proprietors of the river fishings,
that he let to me his shores for bag-net fishing on Clashfarquhar,
and held no charter thereon. Nor can he have forgotten that
the fishing he holds in the river Dee was let to me for either £11
or £13 (I forget which) so far back as 1834, and that it rose
to £25 a-year. This does not show such a decline of the fishing
as is now paraded before the public. When Mr Menzies, of
Pitfodels, held the Weill and Garth fishing in his own hand, he
had no rent at all latterly, i.e., up to 1834. I rented these
stations at £60 per annum, and now they are let at £95. The
Ruthrieston Fishing was let in 1834 at £41, and now it is let
at £78. This is a considerable increase — which took place
before the publication of Mr Jopp's pamphlet.

Take the produce of one day's fishing in the opening of season
1858, at the upper stations, five miles from sea, which I extract
from the Montrose Standard of February 5, 1858 : —

" The fishing opened on Monday, and proved most successful ou the North-
esk — between 700 and 800 fish having been caught. At one haul alone about
170 fish were taken out of the " Skipper's Hole," and the take for the day was
unprecedented, about two tons of fish having beeu sent off per railway. The

14

fishing on the Southesk was not so successful, few fish having been caught,
Gn Tuesday, the ice prevented the fishermen from getting wrought. At the
Cruives of "Don, Aberdeenshire, sixty fish were got before six o'clock in the
mornin" and, including a moderate take at Nether Don, the day's take was
fullv twice that figure. On Dee the ice ha3 been found detrimental to the
fishing The state of the sea does not yet admit of the stake-nets being in
operation. Altogether, the commencement is promising.'r

In the following year, 1859, the number of Salmon was over
600 during the first week, on the same upper fisheries, five miles'
from the sea, but of larger size than the preceding year.

Recurring to Mr Thomson and the River Dee, I give, without
comment, the following sent by him to me in 1839, in which he
advocates the erection of a crave, while he is now so much
against the stake and bag-nets: —

M Sketch of a Plan for Improving the Revenues arising from Salmon
Fishings in the River Dee.

" It is well known to all Proprietors of Salmon Fishings on the River Dee,
that for many years past, the Rentals of their Fishings have been diminishing,
more especially of those which are situated above the influence of the tide.

" Various causes may be assigned for this ; two appear to be the. most
important, viz. : — 1st, The establishment of Sea Fishings on every practicable
point of the coasts, where the fish are taken on their way to the respective
rivers ■ and, 2dly, The vast supplies sent from all parts of Great Britain and
Ireland to the London market, by which the market price has been reduced
below its former rate.

" The Proprietors of River Fishings have thus to contend with two disad-
vantages— a smaller quantity of fish arriving at their several stations, and a
lower price obtained for their fish at market, than in former times.

" Neither of these disadvantages are under their control, for the Courts of
Law have decided that Sea Fishings are legal ; and the additional supply
conveyed to the London market from all quarters is the natural result of the
increased enterprise and capital of the country. __

" The question then occurs — Can the Proprietors of the Dee Fishings do
anything to help themselves ?

" It is self-evident that if the means can be devised to take as many fish as
at present, and, at the same time, greatly to diminish the expense of taking
them, then there will at once result a rise of rent to every Proprietor

" As matters are at present managed, it is notorious that, at least at all the
Upper Fishings, the annual outlay for materials and wages far exceeds the
amount of rent paid ; and some stations, once profitable, have been entirely
abandoned, because the produce does not pay the expense.

"As a remedy, it is proposed that the whole Proprietors of the Dee, from
the sea to the source, including that portion of the coast which belongs to the
Lowest Fishing, shall form themselves into One Fishing Company; and that,
thereafter, the whole fish shall be taken by means of one or more fixed
engines, at a spot, or spots, to be hereafter determined ; and that, after the
commencement of this mode of fishing, all use of nets and cobles, above the
fixed engines, shall cease.

"■The following are the principal advantages of this plan: —
"It would save a great part of the annual expense for materials, and
almost the whole of the wages, as a very few hands would be sufficient
for managing the fixed engines.
" It would thus give each Proprietor an increase of rent, from the saving
of expense of fishing, and pay rent to many who have for years past
drawn none.
"It would put an end to disputes, often most vexatious, as to rights of

fishing in particular spots.
" It would put an end to the annoyance arising from trespassers on the
river hanks, on pretence of going to and from fishing stations, and
thus be a great comfort to all Proprietors whose pleasure grounds
adjoin the river.
" By disusing nets and cobles above the fixed engines, much spawn, now
annually destroyed, would be preserved and allowed to come to
maturity, and thus augment the fish in future years.

15

" The Rod Fishing of the Upper Heritors would he much improved, as
the fish which passed the engine during the Saturday slap would, by
this arrangement, be preserved for their use.
" The Upper Heritors would also profit by being saved the expense of
conveying their tish for shipment at Aberdeen.

" As it seems generally admitted that Salmon return to the same river, fish
of small size ought not to be taken, but returned to the river, to be afterwards
retakeu of a larger size.

" In a moral point of view, also, the plan is valuable ; for our Salmon
Fishings, as at present managed, afford a most evil training to the young men
engaged in them.

It would be necessary, in regard to Rod Fishing, that it should be under-
stood that no Salmon caught by the rod should be exposed to sale ; but that
the Rod Fishing of the Upper Proprietors should be regarded, not as a source
of emolument to them, but rather as an amusement to themselves and their
friends, and for the convenience of their families — they being, of course,
entitled to employ gamekeepers or servants to fish for them. If Rod Fishing
be allowed at the fixed engines, then all the fish so taken to be delivered to
the fishermen, or paid for, as at present at the Don Cruives.

" This plan can only be adopted if all the Proprietors of the river and its
tributaries concur. It would, probably, be easy to arrange with Tacksmen,
as it is believed that all the more valuable Fishings are under very short
leases, or fished by the Proprietors.

" The plan may be tried for a few years, and, if not found to answer, it may
be given up, and things restored to their former footing.

" The fixed engines may either be cruives, or a machine similar to the sea
stake-nets, placed across the river. The latter would be the more convenient,
were the plan to be tried only for a few years.

" The engines must be so placed and contrived as not to interfere with
wood-floaters -, and it is thought they might be made a convenience to them,
by being arranged so as to intercept single logs at a convenient place, and
prevent them being carried out to sea.

" To carry the scheme into effect, it is proposed to call a meeting of the Dee
Proprietors, provided the proposal meet general approval ; at which meeting
a Committee shall be named, to consider further details, and name an arbiter,
whose decision shall be final, in proportioning among the Proprietors the share
of each, in proportion to the length of his banks —his distance from the sea —
the rent drawn — the quantity of fish caught, and all the circumstances of the
case.

" The whole river to be divided into 50,000 shares, to be apportioned to each
Proprietor by tbis arbiter.

" The fixed engines may either be let, or fished by the Proprietors on their
own account.

'" An Act of Parliament may be obtained, if thought desirable ; and if no
Act be procured, it is necessary that there be an unanimous agreement of all
the Proprietors ; and that they all consent that, at subsequent meetings, the
majority present shall bind the absent and the minority."

THE CLYDE.

It is no new tiling to be told by Mr Jopp that the bag and
stake- nets have destroyed the rivers, but it is well known that
the Clyde became extinct as a fishery before bag-nets were
introduced. The Clyde was once famous for its Salmon, and a
Salmon on a tree is the Heraldic Arms of Glasgow.

THE TYNE.

Newcastle- on-Tyne was once famous for its Salmon. There
Salmon boiling first began, and to this day, in London, pickled
Salmon are sold as Newcastle Salmon. The same causes there
have completely destroyed the Tyne — chemical works and steam
navigation ; but neither the bag-nets nor stake-nets had come
into existence when this river was deserted by Salmon. When

1(3

shipping increases, and manufactures spring up on the hanks of s
river (where chemical ingredients are used), the fisheries invari-
ably decline in the rivers, and Salmon desert them altogether.
Still, Salmon are to be had in considerable quantity in the sea,
but as far from these streams as the poisonous ingredients
extend. Hence, if sea fishings are closed, there can be no
Salmon got at all in such districts ; and these deleterious
ingredients are increasing every year in the rivers Dee and Don.

THE DEE OF CHESTER.

The Dee of Chester is a magnificent river, yet very few
Salmon are caught there ; and most English rivers are in the
same condition, because there is no regular close time. There
is hardly such a thiDg known in England as stake or bag -nets
©n the coast.

The Tweed, the Ythan, and the Don, and several other
rivers passing through a fiat, highly cultivated country, show
dearly the effect of thorough drainage and the application of
chemical manures. The effect is manifest everywhere on these
rivers, yet the bag and stake nets are set down, by common
consent, as the sole and only cause of the decline in the Fisheries.

EEBATE SALMON.

Mr Jopp is manager for several Salmon fishing Proprietors in
Aberdeen. These fisheries are managed in a peculiar manner.
The fish are collected and divided proportionately to each respec-
tive interest, just as white fishers deal out their catch. Fish
that are cut or otherwise injured by Seals, and other fish in the
sea, are set down as Rebates. Mr Jopp has fallen into an error
in asserting that these fish are injured by bag and stake-nets.
Along all the coast of Scotland about one-fourth of the fish are
so cut in August, and about one-third in the first fourteen days
of September. The question was put by a member of the Com-
mittee of the House of Lords to a witness, in speaking of the
quality of sea fish in preference to river fish, who referred him
to .Mr Jopp's evidence on that point ; but if any fish are at all
damaged by Mr Jopp's fishermen, I fear that the fisheries
he represents are carelessly managed, as the fish are not
so destroyed at other fisheries. In my experience as a fisher,
Salmon are better handled by the sea fishers than they are by
the river fishermen.

HOME DRUMMOND'S ACT.

It is to be regretted that such a Bill as that now in force in
Scotland bad nol passed, in 1828, for England and Ireland. If
Buch had been the ease, there would not have been so much noise
from parties haying no connection with Scotland, who have been
very officious in running down the fisheries there.

FISHERY BOARD OF SCOTLAND.

There was a very general wish expressed some years ago to
abolish this Board ; and justly so. It has outlived its usefulness.
Traverse the shores of Scotland, and three-fourths of the fisher-
men will tell you they do not know of its existence (except in
the Crown branding of Herring barrels). The Haddock fishing
thrives without any surveillance, and the amount received by
Scotland from England for Haddocks is not far short of that for
Herrings, most of which are now made reds, with which the
Board has nothing to do. The Lord Advocate's Bill seems in-
tended to perpetuate the existence of that Board ; and will also
double its expense to the country. It is a pity there are not
300 Joseph Humes in the House of Commons, to ask the Govern-
ment for a return of the amount of money spent on fishing mat-
ters during the last few years. I am surprised the country tole-
rates such a waste of money as the existence of this Board entails.
There is no Fishery Board in Norway, where the produce of the
Herring fishing last year exceeded that of Scotland by more than
100,000 barrels ; nor in British America, where the Cod fishing
exceeds that of all Europe.

SUPERIORITY OF SEA-CAUGHT SALMON OVER THOSE
CAUGHT IN THE RIVERS.

For many years I had the largest retail trade in Salmon in
the City of Aberdeen. My supply was for some time chiefly
from the River Dee, but, from repeated complaints of the softness
of river fish, I had to bring sea Salmon from Montrose Bay to
Aberdeen, to meet the wants of the public, or to relinquish my
retail trade. T had, therefore, to bring sea-caught Salmon a
distance of 32 miles. I had to send the Aberdeen river-caught
fish to London in ice. Preserved Provision-curers will not take
river fish if they can get sea fish to preserve.

I annex copies of letters to this effect from salmon-boilers of
long experience, and every one that has followed that trade
corroborates the statement : —

" Keel of Achill, County Mayo, Ireland, 28th March, 1851.
" I hereby declare that I have been a Salmon-boiler for a period of 35 years ;
that I have been in the service of the most extensive Salmon Fishers in Scot-
land ; that in my experience of Salmon-boiling, where hundreds of Salmon
were boiled in a day, and I have cut up 500 Salmon in one day, I hereby
declare that I always found the Salmon that were caught in the sea greatly
superior to those caught in the river.

(Signed) "ALEXe. LEED."

" Aberdeen, 27th April, 1861. "*
" I hereby declare that I have been a Salmon-boiler for upwards of 30 years,
and that I have been in the service of the mast extensive Salmon Fishers in
Scotland ; that in my experience of Salmon-boiling, when I have boiled
hundreds of Salmon in a day and thousands in a season, I hereby declare that
1 always found the Salmon that were caught in the sea greatly superior to
those caught in the rivers.

(Signed) "ANGUS KOSS."

18

LEGISLATION FOR IRELAND v. LEGISLATION FOR
SCOTLAND.

It is above thirty-five years since bag-nets were introduced
into Scotland, and twenty-nine years since they were introduced
into Ireland. The Crown did not seek to disturb those who had
no Crown charters, and those who hold them paid nothing for
them. A few years ago, in the case of the " Crown v.
Gammel," the House of Lords decided against the respondent.
This obliged all the proprietors of these shores to come to a very
sensible arrangement with the Crown, by dividing the rent
between them, as the Crown could not carry on a Salmon fishery
without the concurrence of the proprietors of the shore. Hence
matters have gone on as before between the lessees and the pro-
prietors, the latter giving up half the rent to the Crown. How-
ever, the Legislature gave, by the Act of Parliament of 1842,
confirmed and strengthened by the five Acts that have subse-
quently passed for the Irish fisheries, a title as patent as that of
a Crown charter. Properties have been sold in the Encumbered
Estates Court since the right of Salmon fishing has been thus
legalized by an act of the British Parliament, and the question
here suggests itself — Whence this toleration to carry on a
business so freely in Ireland, and now not only to destroy the
unchartered fishings, but the whole sea fishings in Scotland?

Are not the proprietors of the shores of Scotland entitled to
ask the British Parliament not only to be allowed to have fixed
nets in the sea, but to confer on them a title to the shores, such
as has been readily accorded to Ireland ?

The following is the number of rods, lines, and nets of all
kinds in use in Ireland in 1859 : —

Salmon Rods 1C38 I Fly Nets 17

Cross Lines 277 i Stake Nets 81

Snap Nets 217 Head Weirs, ") «_■ „ (50

Draft Nets 504 Boxes, Cribs, &c, J ormves — • \81

Drift Nets 30 Gap and Eye Nets, &c, 426

Trammel Nets 202 Sweepers 5

Pale Nets 50 j Coghills 63

Bag Nets 238 I

Amount of license duty, £5337 17s lOd ; increase over previous year, £315.
Number of fishermen employed, 8709 men.

PLAN POR
GIVING SCOPE FOR ANGLING

AND GREATLY

IMPROVING THE SALMON FISHERIES OF SCOTLAND,
WITHOUT DISTURBING THE SEA FISHERIES,

It is a well-known fact that the net fishers on rivers, and
especially those farthest from the sea, on the least productive
stations, let at a nominal rent, use finnock-nets so small in the
mesh that not even a Smolt can escape. It is also well known
that in harvest, when young Trout abound in the rivers, these
nets do a great deal of harm. There is no resting place for
Salmon in rivers ; and even were the Lord -Advocate's Bill to
pass, the angler would be interrupted at every point, unless the
Fisheries in the rivers were rented specially for angling.

I would therefore suggest a plan that I have long thought of
— viz., to discontinue all net fishing in every river in Scotland
above the tide- way, to abolish all cruives in rivers, and to assess
all the other Fisheries in Scotland in proportion to their rental.
This would amount, on the river Tay, to 6i-, or say 7 per cent. ,•
on the South and Northesks, to 15 per cent.; and on the Dee
and Don, to 10 per cent. The river Heritors above the tide-
way would then receive larger rentals from anglers, and have
their present rentals paid to them in all time coming. The fish
would find resting-places, and early spawners could shed their
melt and roe in such places as they might select, without being
caught or driven off by nets, thus providing a perpetual nursery.

Angling could then commence and close along with the net
fishings. The farthest up stations on all rivers — which at
present yield nothing in the shape of rent, and never did so even
before bag and stake nets came into existence — will then become
most valuable, as at present the nets over every available part of
the river take every fish before they can reach the upper part

I give the rental of several districts near to me : — The rental
of the Tay for all its fisheries is £14,000, above the tideway, £800
to £ 1000 ; North and Southesks £5000, above the tideway £720 ;
Dee and Don and coast fishings £5000, above the tideway £500.

I now give the quantity of fish caught over ten miles of the
River Dee above the tideway, viz., about 3000 Salmon and Grilse,
and about 2000 Trout ; but about half as many as are caught

20

are driven back to the sea ; and the fish not disturbed by draft
nets would thus give for anglers about 7000 to 8000 on the Dee.

An assessment on the rental of the sea and tidal fisheries
would raise a fund sufficient to cover the annual loss by the re-
moval of all cruives and the withdrawal of all river nets above
the tideway, and would thus compensate the upper Heritors for
their loss of rental.

By this method anglers would get all they can reasonably de-
sire— the public would continue to get, at eveiy part of the coast
of Scotland, sea-caught Salmon in prime condition — and preserved
provision curers their supplies for curing. The ropemaker and
twine-spinner, too, would not be disturbed in their yearly work
— the clank of the boatbuilders' hammer would still be heard —
the women who depend on net weaving would not be cast as a
burden ou the parish — the tenants would not have their property
rendered useless and their fishing-houses laid waste — the shore
would still be occupied by these 2000 skilful boatmen, who have
come so wilhngly forward to bear arms in their country's defence
— and the proprietors would not have their property rendered
valueless.

REMARKS ON THE LORD ADVOCATE'S
FISHERIES BILL.

Home Drummond's Act contains 14 clauses, and the Lord-
Advocate's Bill 130 clauses. The appendix under the mysterious-
looking Schedules A and B is even longer than Home Drum-
mond's Act.

The first 16 clauses of the Lord- Advocate's Bill are required
to explain what is to follow, like the Irish Act of 1842, with its
115 clauses, which required five subsequent Acts to explain and
alter it ; and now a seventh is wanted to consolidate the six
Acts, and an eighth Act will likely be required to explain the
meaning of the seventh.

At clause 18 begins the dangerous and unlimited powers of
the Lord-Advocate's Bill.

Power is asked to make bye-laws from time to time, as
the proposed Board shall think fit, with respect to the descrip-
tion, size, length, dimensions, and form of nets to be used in
Fisheries, and the size of the meshes thereof.

No man, I believe, will become tenant of a River Fishing
under such a law. A tenant may have his nets all made, when
the Board may, just as he is about to use them, order another
kind, in all likelihood quite unsuitable and unworkable. They
will have power to do so from time to time, just as often as they
please.

The Board will also have power to order any size of mesh they
please; and it may order them to be of such a size as may allow
all the fish to pass to the Anglers, who may rent the river above
such net-fishing. The Board will also have power to fine the
tenant £10 for non-conformity, and burn his nets, as eight were
burned in Ireland the other day, belonging to one tenant, because
the nets, being in that case made of cotton, had shrunk under
the legal size of mesh — boats and every other implement to be
destroyed, i.e., burned.

Clause 19. — One month's notice is to be given of any change
of the law. If a tenant, therefore, makes nets in conformity
with the law in January, he may, when he is about to open the
River Fishing in February, have to destroy his entire stock, and
begin again ; and so on monthly, as each fresh fancy is issued
by this Board, which is vested with unlimited power to make,
rescind, and remake bye-laws. Who is to pay the tenant for the
first stock, condemned by the law that a month before approved
of it 1 The Excise laws are mild compared to this.

Clause 20 is copied from the Irish Act, as are most of the other
clauses, but it has been rendered more oppressive.

22

Clause 23. — What is the folly of wasting public money in
defining the mouth of a river, as is done in Ireland, when the
Bill stops all fixed nets in the sea ? The Bill in this respect
contradicts itself, and would lead one to believe that when it
was written, an after thought put the pen through all fixed
nets in the sea, as this clause was evidently intended to restrict
the operation of fixed nets.

Clause 26. — This is substituting the clause relating to the
election of conservators in Ireland, with a slight alteration, for
the simple, efficient clause in Home Drummond's Act, which
embraces in a few words all that is contained in this elaborate
document, which only serves to confuse what is at present
simple.

Clause 27. — This clause ignores the right of any fishings but
those having Crown Grants. The Lord- Advocate should consider
that, so recently as 1842, there were no rights existing in Ireland
for bag or stake-nets in the sea ; but an Act of Parliament has
granted a title freely and unconditionally to all the proprietors
of the shores of Ireland to the Fishings on these shores. Within
the last six months I have seen gifts of thousands of acres of the
bed of the ocean given away as private and exclusive property,
on which to form oyster beds. In all cases where application is
made, it is granted, if no public oyster-beds exist ; and no special
Act of Parliament was required in each case, but a general Act
for Ireland delegates full power to the Commissioners of Fisheries
for Ireland to do so. Scotland ! this is the reward for your
tranquillity ; well may you borrow the Irish phrase — stereotyped
in the House of Commons — "Justice to Ireland." When shall
we have justice to Scotland ?

Clause 29. — £20 is to constitute a vote for election ; therefore,
supposing 11 members to compose the Local Board, £120 of
rental carries a majority. In the case of the Tay, £13,880 of
the rental might thus be overruled and outvoted in all matters
relating to the appointment of officers, water-keepers, &c. This
is another clause, taken from the Irish Fishing Law, by which
a person holding no greater interest in the Fisheries than a 10s
fishing-rod, and armed with no greater authority than a 10s
fishing-license, votes for the election of, and may be elected as,
a conservator, with as much power and authority as a proprietor
holding one or more several Fisheries, without regard to extent
or value. I pay, in one district in Ireland, more than all the
other tenants ami proprietors together ; yet I have, if I take out
licenses in one name, only one vote.

( llause 30. — This meeting may be held in Edinburgh or
in London. It is a loose affair, like the whole Bill. The pro-
prietors of Sea Fishings lose their right to fixed nets; the river
proprietors lose their power of control ; the Central Board arro-
gates the sole administration; and the proprietors become power-
less to spend even the assessment they themselves must provide.

Clause IS— It will be a very easy matter for the persons in
the boat who are to have power to moor, anchor, &c, in such

23

places as they may find convenient, to disturb the fish, and
destroy the fishing of those who are not in favour ; and who is to
be the judge " that they do not impede or obstruct any legal
mode of fishing ?"

Clause 50. — It is almost criminal to be a tenant of Salmon
fishings at all, unless an angler. We are to have an endless
host of Water Bailiffs, Inspectors, Superintendents, Clerks,
Police, and Coast Guard. Is any trade on the face of the earth
subjected to such restraints and surveillance ?

Clause 54 needs no comment, unless that, as British subjects, we
cannot exercise the right of fishing in the sea. The limit here is
neglected. The word " sea" embraces the German and Atlantic
Oceans. But if the fishers emigrate, and become naturalized
subjects of France or any other foreign Power, they can carry
on Salmon fishing by any means beyond a league from the
British shore, by virtue of international law ; thus, as aliens and
foreigners, we can do what by this Act we dare not do as British
subjects.

Clause 55. — The alterations of dykes, for water power, may
exceed the rental of the fisheries — there is no limit. Any
Surveyor or Inspector may order an alteration in dam-dykes.
While this work is going on, many thousands of millworkers
may be laid idle, and machinery stopped ; but should a flood come
and sweep down the dyke during such alterations, must the
Proprietors of the fisheries or the Millowners bear the loss ? The
Bill does not say. The loss may amount to thousands of pounds in
most rivers ; and after the passing of this Act no new dyke is to
be allowed, unless by the consent of the Central Board. Here
is a limit to manufacturing progress in Scotland. But, even
after consent is obtained, alterations must always be made
as desired by the Board, like the monthly alteration of nets.
This sort of dyke may be aptly termed " a dancing cairn."

Clause 58. — The heck will have to be so often removed for
cleansing as to entail an endless expense on millowners, but will
afford an ample supply of fish for the millworkers, and become
an admirable fixed engine of fishing, without the expense of a
license.

Clause 59. — It is a well-known fact that, in weeding gardens,
cleansing fields, pruning berry bushes and trees, the primings
and cleanings, if not thrown into the river, are left sufficiently
near to be floated down with a moderate flood. This lattice or
wire-work is not to be cleansed on Sundays, and it cannot be
done under night ; it will become as close as a blanket, and stop
the supply of water. Moreover, it will entail an endless expense
and annoyance on every millowner in Scotland. How is the
long grass to be removed from the wire-work, and how is the
wire-work itself to be removed when choked up by a coating of
tow and garden weedings ? It is quite impracticable, as every
fisher who has had experience well knows. The Lord- Advocate
should let what is well alone.

Clause 60. — Railway companies must feel very comfortable

24

that they have escaped without hindrance to their trains in
crossing a river ; hut the Lord-Advocate has hit upon a remedy.
Railway flags or signals are red or green, so it is only to a white
flag that his Lordship objects. There is another comfort in this
Bill — viz., that there is to be no hindrance to the erection of
new railway bridges, nor to the remodelling of those now erected.

Clauses 6*2 and 63. — It shall not be lawful to fish with the
net after 6 o'clock, but lawful for the angler to go on till 12.
The duties of the Water Bailiffs must be so onerous, and the
staff so numerous, that the rents of the rivers will be frittered
away. Here is a blow at the industry of the country, and a
boon to the sportsman. But this is quite in keeping with the
whole Bill, and its aim and end are evidently not to benefit the
public with a supply of fish, but to create sport to anglers. The
plan I suggest — to throw nets out of use in all rivers above the
tide-way — would give anglers more sport than any plan yet
devised, without the expensive working of this Bill, without
detriment to the sea and tidal Fisheries, or injury to the public
in withdrawing the supply of Salmon now caught in their
primest condition.

Clause 66. — It is something quite new in criminal jurispru-
dence to throw the onus of proof on the suspected person ; but
this clause pr6vides for the capture of Salmon for artificial
propagation, setting nature aside, and anticipating it by a cruel
practice. Oh, shade of Dick Martin, why did not the stripping
of roe and melt from fish come within your category of cruelty
to animals ?

Clase 67. — The Inspector has power to order the removal of
nets to any place, at whatever distance, without regard to
expense, or whether wet or dry. The power is absolute. The
defender may be fined £20 — more than, in most cases, the value
of the nets of a river fishing altogether.

Clause 70. — It is as criminal to have a Salmon net as contra-
band goods, within five miles of the sea or river ; therefore, no
net of any description or form, either for garden fences or sheep
nets, can be used now, as ten miles between rivers bring you
within the scope of the law, and render any one who has such a
net liable to a penalty of £20. There is no part where the
Northesk and Southesk, or Dee and Don, are ten miles apart ;
and many rivers are in similar proximity to each other.

Clause 71. — Any vessel, British or foreign, in any British
port, is liable to be searched, and have nets seized. Trawlers
and mackerel fishers can, by this clause, be interrupted in, if
not prevented from, fishing, as everything is left to the ('(Mitral
Board to be determined.

Clause 77. — Power is given to the Central Board to make
bye-laws, determining how nets shall be wrought in the sea and
in the river; in short, the Central Hoard are to be net-makers,
and the fishers, proprietors, and tenants are denuded of all
power or privilege whatsoever, and kept in continual uncertainty
as to what new mode shall turn up next.

25

Clause 80. — Why fix five miles for the possession of a speav
or leister from any river V If it is illegal to possess it within
that distance, it is surely as illegal to possess it beyond that ; if
it is illegal in one place, it should he so in any place.

Clause 97. — This delegates to the Board a power to interfere
with the rights of parties in the sea, which is certainly a very
dangerous power. The Board may also step in between the
Proprietors of the Coast and the Commissioners of Woods and
Forests.

Clause 98. — Proprietors and tenants are bound, under a penalty
of £10, to give an account of the fish they may catch, the
person to whom they sell their fish, what price they brought,
what they pay for all materials and wages, and the profit or
loss. If they eat one of their own fish, they must tell it ; and all
this information the Board publishes. The Board must know
everything.

Clause 99. — The whole expense of the levelling of cairns, the
demolition of islands and removing rocks, advertising, travelling
expenses, and the expense of the whole operations of the Board,
must be provided for by a first assessment on all the Fisheries
of the rivers (as there will be no Sea Fisheries to assess, except-
ing on strands near the mouths of certain rivers). For what
purpose is this tax to be levied ? The second assessment —
that for local purposes — will be double the rate it now is, as
bailiffs must be employed all the year instead of 20 weeks as at
present.

Clause 102. — The expense of net-licenses renders the fishing
of a corresponding less value, so that the clause will have no
beneficial effect. It must be a nice operation, and a very
expensive one, to discover who are angling for Salmon and who
are angling for Trout — the latter going free. All the revenue
for licenses will not cover the expense of enforcing this clause.
The license for the net is confined to one particular Fishery ;
but you may travel over all Scotland with your rod-license.
This is an exact copy of the Irish clause, and forms a poor con-
trast to the brief, simple, comprehensive law now in force,
which carries out all that is required in providing for the pro-
tection of the rivers in close season — the point on which the
whole question hinges for improving the Fisheries.

SATURDAY'S SLAP.

All that has been said on this point appears to be matter of
opinion, not of practice. During the last six years I have had
to conform to this law in Ireland ; and I am therefore able to
speak on the practical working of it.

It is impossible to work by one crew of men half so many
nets in Ireland as in Scotland, owing to the stringency of this
law ; and I have frequently taken out nets on Saturday, and not
got them into the sea again before the middle of the following

26

week. I have had to withdraw some of my nets altogether from
some remote stations, because of the difficulty of giving effect to
this part of the Irish Act ; and Scotch overseers are reluctant to
go to Ireland, solely owing to the continual anxiety occasioned
by this law — a breach of which involves heavy penalties.

SABBATH DESECKATION.

It may be considered that, by leaving the nets in the sea in
Scotland, and by taking them out in Ireland, the Sabbath will,
in consequence, be better kept in the latter country than in the
former ; but it is quite the reverse. In Scotland no one is re-
quired to look near bag nets on Sunday, in any state of weather ;
but in Ireland, if the sea is stormy on Saturday, and the nets
cannot be removed, they must be removed on Sunday if the
storm subsides, and if the men neglect to do so the Coastguards-
men have power to seize the nets. Hence, in stormy weather,
all the Salmon fishers must be in attendance, even although the
storm has not subsided. So that it often happens that these
men are at work at sea, instead of being in a place of worship,
and they are compelled to do so by Act of Parliament.

The loss thus entailed I consider to be over 40 per cent, of
the rental, and in some cases as much as 100 per cent. If,
therefore, a concession has to be made, I would, so far as I am
concerned in Scotland, bear an assessment of 15 per cent, on my
whole rental to cover the rents of the rivers above the tideway ;
and, having a river and cruive in Scotland, I should have to
bear the loss thereof entirely, as I have the sea fishing for miles
in the vicinity thereof. I would therefore advise the proprietors
and my brethren of the trade to endeavour to get a Bill framed
to give facilities for anglers in this form ; rather than bear the
harassing anxiety of a weekly close time.

CONCLUSION.

There have been some admissions made as to the hard-
ship of the landlords losing their Fisheries on the sea-coast
by discontinuing all fixtures ; but there has been little said
about the tenants, who have laid out large sums of money in
constructing nets suitable for these Fisheries, and which are totally
unfit for any other purpose. Some say the proprietors ought to
be compensated for this loss, and also the tenants for the loss of
their materials and leases ; but, should this Bill pass, there is
another class that comes in for public sympathy — the operative
fishermen. They number between 2000 and 3000; many of
them have passed the meridian of life in their peaceful voca-
tion, and are too old to learn another profession ; and many of
them have laid out their savings in erecting a dwelling-house
near the Fisheries which axe now threatened with annihilation.
The misery that must befall this class of men is too evident.
Many of them must fall a burden on their respective parishes

27

others must emigrate to another country and fish under a foreign
flag, where they may follow the pursuit that it is now contem-
plated to deprive, them of in Scotland. The Scottish fishermen,
as a body, are well conducted men, both Salmon and White-
fishers. During the Chartist outbreak in 1848, there was not a
single instance of the fishermen taking any part in these pro-
ceedings ; there has been no union amongst them to coerce
their employers ; no strike to extort conditions or terms ;
no combination for any improper object ; and there is scarcely
a policeman in any fishing village in Scotland, where tin;
majority are fishermen. In times of adversity, from a prevalence
of unpropitious weather, they have borne their privations
patiently ; and the Salmon-fishers of Scotland now look anxiously
for the iiisue of this question, preferring to remain in Scotland to
increasing the numerical strength of any other country with
able-bodied fishermen. It is not sought to interfere with the
fishermen on the coast of Ireland ; why then throw such a
valuable body of men in Scotland out of their means of earn-
ing a livelihood ?

The British Government yielded up a right of fishing in the
Bay of Fundy some years ago to the Americans, while America
imposes a tax of 4s per quintal on Canadian fish, and allows a
bounty of 4s per quintal to United States fishermen.

There is much discontent at this moment along the whole
coast of Newfoundland, because the British Government have
made concessions to the French Government, to the prejudice
of our Nova Scotia fishermen ; yet in the recent treaty with
France, much lauded as it is, the British Fisheries were quite
ignored by France. While this state of matters is going on
abroad, a Fishery Bill has been passed for the Tweed,
relating to Salmon, which has furnished serious cases for the
Supreme Courts of Scotland. An Act was passed last session
for preventing the fishermen in the Firth of Forth taking bait.
This led to conflicts, and the operation of that law was suspended.
We have now a Bill before the British Parliament, threatening
to cast helplessly on the world a body of hardy fishermen, who
have proved their loyalty to their Sovereign — some entering as
volunteers ashore, and others afloat. It is therefore to be hoped
that the Government will withdraw or modify, so far as the Sea
Fishings are concerned, a measure so serious in its results, especi-
ally as Salmon are as plentiful as ever they were, and no change
of the law is asked by those whom it most concerns.

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