more or less ail the year. Has been on the river for 30 years. The fungus MELROSE. 



existing 25 and 30 years ago was similar to that existing now. Has never 



seen anything but the same fungus as the specimens produced. It is now an 

 aggravated form of the original disease. Has caught five kelts this spring, 

 and two were a very little diseased on the point of the nose. 



The male fish get a little injured on the nose by fighting. 



The disease is quite out of the river now. 



Saw one or two grayling dead with the disease after the first fresh at the end 

 of May. They had floated down. They were quite stinking. Took them out • 

 and buried them. 



Thinks the fungus may go down stream by itself, but never saw it. It is 

 very infectious. 



Thinks, as to remedies, that the river in the first place should be pure. His 

 water is not at all pure now. There are 100 miles of water above him. Thinks 

 the pollution is both chemical and vegetable — chiefly indigo. The water from 

 the factories is generally cold. Has seen it go hot into the river. The 

 cattle, &c. sometimes drink it when they cannot get any other. Cannot say 

 if cattle have been killed by it. Has seen horses drink it. 



The dead fish should be buried. It would be very difficult to catch all the 

 half-dead fish. Half-dead fish should be buried, and all diseased fish should 

 be buried, under the direction of the Tweed Commissioners. 



Thinks the river being ice-bound so long was the cause of the disease. It 

 was ice-bound in January and February. The water was very low. Never 

 saw fewer kelts than this spring. In the spring of 1878 there were many 

 kelts. The disease was worse this season than ever before The river was 

 not ice-bound in the spring of 18/8. The river was high all the winter, and 

 got small in the spring. The water was low all the winter of 18/8-9. 



Has seen 100 fish above the weir at Melrose. There are no sluice gates 

 there. 



The fish lay in the pool instead of getting to the sea. The fish will not 

 always go down when they might. A net was used and the fish carried below 

 the weir, and most of them died. They could not get away. 



Never got any fresh-run fish with the disease. They are very late here. 



All fish should be legally caught after a certain date, say about April. 



The kelts always have maggots in the gills. Has seen few fresh-run fish 

 with maggots. The maggots are not so large in the fresh fish. The intestinal 

 worms have nothing to do with the disease. The disease is very infectious. 

 Never saw a well-mended kelt with disease. There are many of them. Never 

 saw anything in their stomachs. 



The disease is a very serious thing for the fishery, It will be and has been 

 the loss of several thousand pounds to the Tweed proprietors. 



Many fish come up the river in October with a flood. They are bigger 

 fish. The male fish coming up in October are many of them getting red in 

 colour. The females come at the same time. They get on the redds in 

 November. The principal spawning time is December and January. If there 

 is no water to take them away they fall back into the pools. The kelts are 

 overcrowded in March and April, at least there are a great many kelts in the 

 river which ought to go down to the sea. They collect above, and not below, 

 the weirs. 



Has seen crows, but not ducks, eating fungousy kelts. The hooded crows 

 are always about. 



The disease is an aggravated form of the old disease. The fungus is the disease. 



David Cuthbert Donaldson, Superintendent of Water Police, Melrose. 

 -—Has been so for four years. During the close season has 22 men under him 

 in Roxburghshire, 11 in Selkirk, and 18 in Peeblesshire — 48 on the average. 

 That is for 70 to 80 miles of river. The men regularly report to him. Has 

 been connected with the Tweed 13 years. 



Every spring formerly there was disease among the kelts. There was some- 

 thing like a scurf, principally on the male fish, of a greyish colour. It was on 

 the sides of ^ the fish, and especially above wounds. It was on kelts, and 

 chiefly on kippers. They were left in the water. That disease was different 

 from the existing disease. The disease now, if it is the same, is much more 

 aggravated than before. There always has been disease since he knew the 

 Tweed. The disease formerly principally affected the sides of male kippers. It 



