Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
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First published 1976 (SND Vol. X).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
COSSACK, n. A kind of salmon-trap in a river (see quots.).Inv. 1765 Session Papers, Fraser v. Duke of Gordon (27 Dec.) 9:
Another species of machinery, indeed, still more fatal to the rights of the upper heritors, are those machines known by the name of cossacks. These have been placed in and about the cruive-dyke and banks of the island; the entry into them from the low part of the river, was by inscales, which resemble the two leaves of a door; these two leaves met together in the form of an angle, and must be very easy or gleg, that as the fish enter through, the very motion of the water, occasioned by the swimming of the fish, gently forces open the two leaves, and so gives access to the fish to get into this trap, and so soon as the fish gets in, the leaves close again by the force of the stream. Inv. 1780 Session Papers, Grant v. Duke of Gordon (1 March) 10:
This cross dyke joins the two side dykes below the islands; and in the centre of it, there are placed machines called cossacks.
[Ad. Gael. còsag, a small cavern or cell.]
