51 



" Return of Fish Removed and Buried in June 18/9. 



KELSO, 



This gives a total of 754 dead fish taken out of the river and buried in May 

 and June. It will be observed that the greatest number were unspawned 

 females. 



The reason why they were unable to spawn was that the river in the spawn- 

 ing districts was for a long time a solid mass of ice, and that the spawning 

 beds were afterwards destroyed by the heavy floods. 



On the 30th and 3 1st December many of the caulds were destroyed. Was 

 present on the river when the ice broke up. A flood took place on 31st Decem- 

 ber, and the river rose 10 and 12 feet. The floods destroyed not only the 

 caulds, but the spawning beds. 



The report of the superintendent in January was that " during the greater 

 " part of the month, the rivers have been frozen at many places, which has 

 " prevented the fish getting on to the spawning streams. Many had to spawn 

 " in deep holes. Towards the end of the month, the rivers were freed from 

 *' ice, and the spawning streams became stocked with numbers of large 

 " salmon." 



As the fish could not spawn, the retention of the ova and milt was likely 

 to cause inflammation of the ovaries, and the fish being unhealthy were 

 more susceptible to disease. 



A friend of his saw three fish in Loch Tay last April with the fungus of the 

 Tweed on them. Mr. Stirling showed this gentleman specimens of the fungus, 

 and he found it was the same as on the fish he had seen in Loch Tay. 



Refers to the report of gentlemen in charge of the Government fish ponds at 

 Hiiningen in Germany, where fungus existed. A remedy was found in supply- 

 ing water from springs instead of from the river. The fungus disappeared in 

 consequence. (Produces a drawing of fungus from Tweed fish.) 



Angling on the Tweed ends on the 30th November. Cannot say if the 

 number of baggits killed in November by rod affects the balance of sexes. 

 They do not spawn till December and January. 



Cannot suggest any remedy. Thinks it is an epidemic. Is informed by 

 botanists that parasites exist in all running streams, and thinks the fish, 

 having become unhealthy and weak from atmospheric causes, from the polluted 

 water, and from prolonged starvation, and from being prevented spawning, 

 have been more susceptible of their attacks. 



Pollutions alone will not produce it. Rivers exist where pollutions are 

 found and where there is no disease. It may be an epidemic which will die out, 

 as other epidemics have done, affecting both animal and vegetable life. The 

 causes may not occur again next year, and the disease may consequently not 

 reappear. The causes which produced the disease may have now disappeared, 

 and the disease has now disappeared, at any rate for the time being. 



The fish, when in the rivers, do not get proper nourishment. Sir Robert 

 Christison made an experiment to prove that the fish lose fat and oil when 

 in the river, and reported the result in a paper read before the Royal Society 

 of Edinburgh. The fish were sent to him from the Tay. The clean-run 

 salmon contained in its flesh ISiper cent, of oil or fat. The foul salmon — a 

 kelt caught in March when on its way back to the sea, — contained only 1 J per 

 cent, of oil or fat. Knows that salmon when they enter the river are found to 



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