The Sun.
London, England, 1827-05-24 00:00:00

TIM SALMON FISHERIES.

An Inquiry into the present State and Means of Improving
the Salmon Fisheries ; including a Digest of the Evi-
dence taken by a Sei,ct Committee of the House of
Commons.—Londen : Ridgway, pp. 193.

The subject of this treatise has of late acquired
great importance in the estimation of the public,
and has engaged the attention of a Committee
of the House of Commons for the last three
Sessions of Parliament. A great mass of in-
formation has thus been collected, the substance
of which is presented in a condensed and in-
teresting form in the pamphlet whose title is pre-
fixed.

It will excite surprise in those who are un-
acquainted with the history and progress of the
inquiry referred to, to be told that the rivers
and estuaries of this kingdom, contain an almost
exhaustless supply of Salmon,—that from these
might be obtained a great quantity of wholesome
and nutritious food—that the immediate effect of
such increase would be to the public a reduction
in the price of Salmon, and of fish generally—
but that in consequence of an obsolete and ab-
surd Statute, passed more than a century ago,
and forgotten amidst the lumber of a barbarous
age, until raked up by the industry of interested
parties, a most signal improvement in the
mode of fishing Salmon has been denounced by
law, and the community deprived of the benefits
of that improvement. The mode of fishing by
stake-nets is a comparatively recent invention.
It had been adopted with great success in the
Solway ; and, in the year 1797, it was intro-
duced on the shores of the Frith of Tay. There
too its advantages were speedily felt—a prodi-
gious increase in the number of Salmon taken
was the result ; and the public were beginning
to reap the benefit of the invention, when the
proprietors of the fishings in the upper
part of the river Tay, founding their plea
upon the statute referred to, raised an
action to have the stake-net fishings de-
clared illegal. The statute in question was
enacted to prevent certain destructive and in-
jurious methods of killing salmon then in use ;
but could have no reference to an invention,
which was destined to remain undisclosed for
upwards of a century. While, however, the Courts
of Law held that the stake-net fell under the
description of engines denounced by the act,
they left the question as to the merits of that
mode of fishing open for the consideration of the
Legislature, and that question the committee of
the Commons are now engaged in prosecuting.
The progress already made in the enquiry, is
detailed in the treatise now before us, which like-
wise gives an interesting account of the natural
history and habits of the salmon—of the evils
which attend the present anomalous regulations
regarding the Fisheries—and of the remedies
which naturally suggest themselves for the cor-
rection of these evils. We have not space for
an analysis of its contents, but beg to recommend
it to the attentive perusal of our Readers.
• The following extracts will give them an idea
of the style and contents of the pamphlet :

It has been ascertained, that there are about eighteen
thousand ova in the roe of a common salmon. If the whole
were to be deposited, therefore, and young fish to come to
maturity from each ovum, the supply from two or three
parent fish would be more than equal to the produce of the
fisheries in even the largest and most productive rivers in
the kingdom. Accordingly, it almost exceeds the power
of numbers to express the myriads of salmon which exist.
The proportion which falls to the share of man, after the
utmost stretch of his ingenuity and exertions, sinks into
insignificance when compared with what is consumed by
the larger marine animals, which depend chiefly upon
salmon for their existence.

When floating in the open sea, and in the bays and
estuaries, the salmon are continually persecuted by the
larger marine animals, particularly by the grampussea or
porpoises, and seals.
Grampusses abound on all the coasts of the kingdom,
particularly on those of Scotland and Ireland. They pur-
sue the salmon in every direction in the sea, and in the
bays and estuaries ; but they do not enter the fresh water.
They move together in herds, sometimes of the number of
hundreds ; and, it has been said, that they pursue the
salmon like a pack of hounds.' In the estuaries, they
generally rush up with the flood tide, following the salmon,
and again rush out, when the salmon change their course
with the ebb.

Seals, also, are found on all the coasts, and in most of
the estuaries. They do not generally leave the estuaries
with the ebb-tide like the grampusses, but remain on the
sand banks which are left uncovered by the tide, or among
the rocks on the shore; and they are daily seen in the
larger estuaries and on tlie coasts, in flocks of fifty or sixty,
and sometimes many more, on one sand-bank.
It is perfectly ascertained, that the salmon constitutes
the chief food of all these animals; and it will not admit of
doubt, that the destruction of salmon in this way far ex-
ceeds all that can possibly he captured by man.
The introduction of this mode of fishing has been de-
scribed by the great modern novelist, in Redgauntlet. It
is now a considerable length of time since it was first re-
sorted to. But it was evidently a rude mode of fishing,
and could not be very productive, except at peculiar
stations. A long period elapsed before any attempt at im-
provement took place. But as the progress of the British
Empire towards its present state of power and greatness,
produced habits and wants in the people, previously un-
known, a demand for salmon arose, along with capital and
enterprise to answer it ; and it was not long before the
ingenuity of the time:, was applied to the sea fishery
About the year 1797, the Solway fishers extended their
operations to the Frith of Tay, on the east coast of Scot-
land. The first net which they erected in that frith was
constructed on the same principle with the Solway tide-
nets. And their success at first was not so remarkable as
to alarm the proprietiors of the upper or river fisheries, in
which the old mode alone could be used.

. _
But, about the same time, means had been discovered,
and were beginning to he turned to use, by which salmon
could be preserved in a fresh state, simply by its being
packed in ice,—and so could be conveyed in that fresh
condition, to the markets of London and other distant
cities. Any salmon previously sent to those markets, had
been either boiled or pickled. The demand for it, now
that it has sold fresh, greatly increased. The prices rose
rapidly. And the reward thus held forth, soon led to the
extension and improvement of the salmon fishery.
The Solway fisher who had erected the tide-nets in the
Tay, was active and skilful. He perceived that when his
tide-net was shut, by the flood having ceased to operate ca;
the valve, there were still many fish playing round the net ;
and that after the ebb had begun, there were nearly as many
fish running downwards towards the sea as had previously
ascended the Frith. He accordingly changed his mode
of fishing. Instead of forming his net with a moveable or
floating valve, he constructed, by means of netting extend-
ed on stakes, labyrinths or chambers, of such intricacy,
that though the mouth or entrance was always open, and
the fish could enter it easily,—in truth were led almost
necessarily to enter it if they once approached the nets,—
yet they could not again readily get out. And in order to
suit his net to every state of the tide, he also constructed a
labyrinth or chamber having its entrance formed so as to
receive the ebb-tide, as well as one with its entrance to re-
ceive the flood.

Such was the origin of Stake-nets.—A new era opened
in the history of Salmon fishing. The new mode was no
sooner in use, than its success excited the astonishment of
the district. Seven thousand salmon were caught by a
single net in one season,—a quantity nearly equal to the
fourth part of the previous produce of the whole Frith and
river Tay. The improvement was rapidly introduced at
other stations in the Frith. And the success was so great,
that fishings wbich had previously been let for a few pounds,
yielded one, two, and even three thousand pounds sterling
annually.
This state of things, however, came to an end. The
,proprietors of the fisheries in the upper parts of the river
Tay, who had previously enjoyed a monopoly and receive,
a monopoly price, complained of the new mode of fishing,
and brought an action at law to have it put down. After
a long litigation, which continued till 1812, the stake-net
was held to fall under the prohibition of certain ancient
Scotch statutes. -And in consequence, in the Frith of Tay
and in every other frith and estuary throughout Scotland,
that mode of fishing is now held to be illegal.
But when this judgment was given, the merits of the
mode of fishing were not in question. It was tie

4 _
I.ifj!--11

'l4
statutory words only that vAsulacial
fined themselves to interpreting ,gea srese-e;',Wiliiiit to
the legislature to amend the law; `if It was wrong. And
to chew the views by which they were guided, it seems
sufficient to notice, that in the opinion or statement de-
livered at pronouncing sentence, as reported to the House
of Lords on appeal, there occurs this remarkable passage :
Much has been said of the immense patrimonial and
national importance of the question. I beg leave to say,
that I divest my mind as much as possible of the great value
of the interests in competition. I compel mymind to con-
sider it as if it were the case of an individual merely; for
it is a question of law which I am bound to construe as a judge
tied by precedents, and not biassed by its consequences in any
way. As to the various questions of expediency,--as to the new
light which has been thrown, by great ability, on what it
is alleged ought to be the construction of the statutes, I am
humbly of opinion, that it is the province of the Legisla-
ture only to appreciate these, and apply the remedy, if
wrong has been done, not of your Lordships. You must
tread in the footsteps of "your predecessors; you must se-
parate the new lights, which have been recently thrown
upon this subject, from the case as it stood upon the old
Acts of Parliament, and the decisions of this Court. That
is all that you have to do ; you must consider these matters
only, and decide upon them, whatever injury may be geese
sioned thereby to any person or body of men; and if there
shall he any wrong done to the public interest, by any
judgment that you may pronounce, you may rest in tran-
quillity, in the assurance that the wrong will be rectified
by the policy and wisdom of the Legislature.
When the Solway fishers were interrupted in the Tay,
and finally prevented from exercising their art in Scotland,
they next tried Ireland. In 1810 or 1811, they leased
some of the fishings, and erected stake-nets on the shores
of the lower Shannon,—that is, in the estuary of that
great river. It is well known, that in the upper or river
part of the Shannon, there has long been carried on an ex-
tensive fishery by the great weir belonging to the Corpora-
tion of Limerick, which crosses the river from bank to
bank. The site of the stake-nets, however, was twenty
miles below that weir, at a place where there had pre-
viously been no salmon fishery, and where the frith was,
upon an average, from a mile and a half to two miles wide,
and ' sufficiently deep to float a man-of-war, or an East
Indiaman.' The stake-nets were erected on the shallows
left dry when the tide receded, and did not extend on an
average above one hundred yards from high water-mark.
Here, again, the new mode of fishing was successful in
a wonderful degree. In a single tide, one net was seen to -

!

In.

capture2Bo salmon. But here also there were old laws to
contend with. As the fishery extended, actions at law
were commenced in like manner as in Scotland. And,
under a statute of Charles 1., prohibiting standing nets,'
as hurtfill ' to the commonwealth of this realm,' the stake-
net mode of fishing was put down, and held to be illegal
in Ireland ; although, under the same law, and from tl- e
same river Shannon, the salmon smelts, to the infinite de-
struction of the brood, are openly sold for feeding pigs.
England alone now remained open to the enterprise of
the Solway fishers. The new mode of fishing has accord-
ingly been introduced into that country to a considerable
extent. Stake-nets have been treeted in the Bristol chan-
nel, and at other placea. They have been attended with
great success wherever they have been used ; but they have
not yet been generally introduced on the English coasts or
estuaries, chiefly because much knowledge of the habits cf
the fish and of the currents of tide on the coast, are neces-
sary, in order to construct them with effeet ; and there are
at present few individuals in the country who have that
knowledge, joined to the requisite capital and enterprise.--.
No attempt has hitherto been made to get the stake-net
mode of fishing declared unlawful in England.
It is quite certain, then, that the laws of Ireland and
Scotland prohibit the use of stake-nets. But it does not
appear that they are prohibited by the laws of England.--
At least, if there be a prohibition in the English statute-
book, it has not yet been enforced. And the stake-nets
erected on both the English and Scotch sides of the Sol-
way Frith are fostered and encouraged by modern statutes.
There is no circumstance in the natural history cr habits
of the fish, which warrants such an anomalous state of the
law in various component parts of the same empire. If
the prohibition against stake-nets be founded in right rea-
son, it should at once be extended to England and the Sol-
way Frith. If it be not, it should forthwith be removed
from Ireland and Scotland. What is a nuisance in one
district cannot surely be deserving of protection in another.
The only laws regarding the mode of fishing, which
have been passed since stake-nets were introduced, are those
applicable to the Solway Frith ; and instead of prohibiting
the use of such nets, their principal object was to encourage
and protect them. The laws under which stake-nets have
been held to be illegal in Ireland and Scotland, were passed
long before such engines were ever heard of. It is not,
and cannot be pretended, therefore, that these laws were
framed on a knowledge of the nature or effects of this mode
of fishing. The only question has been, whether the pro-
hibitory words used in the statutes, are such as will com-
prehend stake-nets? It has chanced in Ireland and Scot •
land, that the statutory words do apply to such nets ; and
it has chanced in England, that they do not. Is it not de-
grading to the law of the United Kingdom, that such a
state of things should exist ? Is it not full time that it
should be remedied; and that the Legislature should deter-
mine what ought to be the law, and establish a general re-
gulation accordingly ?