59 



The pollution may help to cause disease, but the severity and length of the gORNmLL- 



winter has been the chief cause. • •">■__ x " 



Minnows and eels have burrowed, and the salmon have had no food. Ine 

 pools also were covered with ice, and the fish could not get into them for 



warmth. 



The disease is produced by natural causes, and will die out. 



The fish will recover in salt water. It is a river disease. 



Has seen a few bull-trout diseased. They are a stronger fish than- salmon. 



Kelts should be killed. Has seen six fry in a bull-trout kelt. Under the 

 old law the nets caught all the bull-trout. Remembers 50 years ago oO or 60 

 bull-trout being taken in one net in a night. There are ten bull-trout now ior 

 lone when he was a boy. They breed in the tributaries. Salmon are never 

 seen in the Whitadder. 



The disease is owing to the state of the river the last year. 



The condition of the Whitadder was the same as that of the Tweed. 



A few bull-trout were diseased, but not one tenth of the number of the 

 salmon diseased. The bull-trout are different from the salmon, and this 

 explains the fact that there was no disease in the Whitadder, which was 

 similarly circumstanced to the Tweed. Trout axe stronger than salmon, and 

 are nearly recovered after spawning, when the salmon are very weak. Bull- 

 trout kelts are generally free from disease. 



Has seen smolts and minnows affected. 



The fish were starved, owing to all insect life being killed, and they had to 

 c-o into stagnant water, where the water was not running. Hence they became 

 ''overcrowded." The length of time they were in fresh water also helped 

 the disease. More severe frosts have been known, but it was the continuance 

 of it that did the mischief . . 



The disease broke out in the Esk and Eden in the previous winter, which 



was mild. . 



Heard of a salmon that was caught at Carham, and six weeks alter it was 



caught with the hook in the Tyne. .„,'-, • 



The disease in the Esk and Eden in 1877-8 might be due to prior cir- 

 cumstances. On one occasion a great deal of lime was thrown into the Tweed, 

 and cartloads of fish were carted out of the locks near here. 



William Scott (recalled).— Caught some diseased clean-run fish in the 

 sprint of 1878— at the end of April or beginning of May. Perhaps six of them. 

 Could not tell if they were males. They were a little marked on the head, nearly 

 all the same. They went to market, and no complaint was made. The river 

 was lowish, but not very low at the time. 



Town Hall, Berwick- on-T weed, Thursday, October 2nd, 1879. 



Present 



Frank Buckland, Spencer Walpole, and Archibald Young, 



Esqviires. 



George Robertson.— Was manager of stake-net fisheries on the coast 

 for Mr. Crossman for 30 years. The fisheries have decreased greatly, more 

 particularly the last ten years. His fisheries are at Goswick south of the river 

 seven miles from Tweedmouth. The disease has, been chiefly in salmon and 

 grilse. There has been no decrease but rather an increase of trout. The disease 

 is owing to the way in which the fish come to the coast from the middle of 

 August to the close of the season, when they make for the river. 



The river gets overstocked. There are too many fish in the breeding season, 

 but too few in the fishing season. 



Has seen no traces of disease in the sea. The salmon and trout are always 



^KnoCs nothing of the river fisheries. Has heard of the disease, and thinks 

 the season should be extended ; that would help to stop overstocking. Used to 



