13 



clean-ran healthy fish. There was nothing but a clean white spot the size "■• ^J^f" 



of a farthing. The fish were perfectly healthy, and weighed 8 lbs. each. 



Thinks the spot came from salt water. The white spot had no filaments of 

 fungus. The water of his fishery is almost always salt. This year it has been 

 fresher owing to floods. Never heard of any other cases here. 

 Knows nothing of salmon from other different rivers. 



Heard Mr. Martin's evidence. Has often seen the brown spot on their heads, 

 and also on their sides. Always thought it came from a wound, and that it 

 was a wound healing up. The fish Mr. Martin saw may have been killed by a 

 wound. Has seen many dead fish, but very few in the river. The brown 

 spot is like a wound healing up and a little puffy. Thinks it was an injury. 

 Thinks the fish would have been injured passing through the yairs. 



Saw more fish in the autumn of 1877 than in the four years he has been 

 here. Was fishing for smelts, and often got salmon in his nets. Did not see 

 a quarter of the fish in 1876, 1878-9, that he saw in 1877. 



Does not know the upper waters. Has fished for 35 years in other rivers. 

 This river is not so well stocked with fish as the Tay, which he formerly 

 fished. Believes the Tay produces 105,000 fish a year. The Dee is a far 

 later river than other southern rivers. The fish are not ready till May. 



Can give no idea of the number of fish caught in the Dee. 



Thinks the disease is caused partly by dirty water from factories and towns, 

 but cannot give any satisfactory idea. The word " Dee " means " Black." 



Joseph Duncan, water bailiff to the Fleet District Board. — The Fleet is a 

 small late river. Has known it for 20 years. Saw a diseased fish, like the 

 specimen produced, on the 8th August last year. It was a clean fish of 2\ lbs., 

 and was caught with the fly. It had a soft spongy fungus on the gills. 

 There was no mark on the fins. The gills were covered with a slimy matter. 

 The fish was in good condition. It might have died of suffocation. 



Saw some fish similarly attacked on the Usk five or six years before. Saw 

 kelts there repeatedly so affected. There was a white spot, with a cancerous 

 appearance, and fungus. The fungus itself is subsequent to the disease. 



Has no correct idea as to the cause. It cannot be overstocking in the Fleet. 

 The Fleet occasionally falls very low. The retention of the fish by ice in the 

 pools could not account for the disease. 



It arises in both salt and fresh water, if it is in the fish. The diseased fish 

 found in salt water may have come down, but is inclined to think the disease 

 is in the fish, and not in the water. Knows nothing of other rivers here. 



The Fleet fishery has not fallen off lately. It is chiefly a sea trout and 

 herling river. The fish he has referred to as diseased was a sea trout. 



The fish run up first in the latter end of June. The sea trout have not 

 fallen off, but increased. 



The Fleet is one of the latest rivers flowing into the Solway. 



An attempt to introduce grayling failed ; was not here then. 



Has not observed the disease on any other fish. Did not observe it in the 

 Fleet before 1878, but in the Usk. 



Would approve of dead fish being buried. 



Had charge of the Usk for eight years, and was well acquainted with the 

 upper waters. The kelts are diseased with a fungus growth every year. Has 

 not seen this in any other rivers. It is found in the Usk every year : not so 

 much the first year he was there, but latterly the fungus and dead fish increased. 

 Never saw smolts affected in the Usk. Knows the whole of the Usk. The 

 disease among the kelts there is the same a3the disease in the Solway. Cannot 

 say why clean fish are affected here, and not in the Usk. 



There is little pollution ?n the Fleet. The Usk is polluted at Newport. 

 The Usk has the larger number of spawning salmon, but the Fleet has more 

 fish than the Usk, because it has more herling and sea trout. 



If there had been any serious disease in the Usk, he must have observed it. 

 Was there five years. The fish, crowded in the pools, would not produce the 

 disease ; it is very contagious, but it is in the fish, and not in the water. 



The first run of fish in the Fleet is far on in June. Has been there five 

 years. 



There were more spawning fish, salmon and grilse, in 1877, than in any 

 other year in the Fleet. There was very low water in the spring of 1878, but 



