63 



Experimental Committee of the Tweed Commissioners. It was an excellent BERWICK-ON 

 fish, and quite fit for the market. TWEED. 



If the nets were allowed to go on, there would he sufficient fish left for the 

 rod. The nets do not take all the fish. The fish begin to take the fly about 

 10th October. 



The 6th section of the Act of 1857 is strictly adhered to. Has no objection 

 to kelts being killed. The kelts may be caught many times by different nets, or 

 even several times at the same fishery, and they get exhausted in consequence. 



Has heard of the clause in apprentices' indentures against eating salmon 

 more tban once a week. Fish were formerly very plentiful. There was a 

 custom for every beggar to ask for a fish at every fishery. 



The railway came here in 1846. 



A great shoal of black trout came in in the middle of September. They 

 destroy a good many spawn. These fish are good for food, especially as 

 kippers. Has seen them selling at less than 3d. a lb. 



Never saw disease on clean fish before 1878. Mr. Brown may have seen it. 

 If it had existed he would have seen it. The fish with the raw sore had not, 

 he thinks, been in the salt water. There was no fungus. Cannot say if the 

 fungus had come away. The sore was close down to the bone. 



Alexander Lillie, fisherman, Paxton. — Fishes for the Berwick Fishery 

 Company. Has known the Tweed 53 years. Has seen no disease till last year — 

 1878. Only saw one that year — in April. It was a clean fish. Kippered it. 

 It was in good order. It had been a little while dead. Got it in the net, and it 

 was dead. The fish was diseased all over the body, and a little on the head. 

 The fungus was all over it. Found no sores. Did not remove the fungus. 

 Opened the fish ; the inside was all right. Nothing wrong with the liver. 

 This was the only diseased fish he saw in 1878. Saw plenty in 1879. Saw the 

 kelts coming down then. Never saw diseased kelts before. Most of the kelts 

 were diseased — head, body, and all. They were worse mended than usual. 

 The disease extended to the clean fish. Saw 10 clean salmon diseased all the 

 year. Saw 200 not diseased. 



The clean salmon were diseased before they became more plentiful. There 

 were too many fish in the river. The last two years there were no fish in the 

 river in the summer, but too many^in the spring. The river was overstocked. 

 Recollects ever since the new Act the fish have been scarcer in the fishing season. 

 In the spawning season they have been plentiful. The fish have been more 

 plentiful in the spawning season and fewer in the fishing season. Has seen a 

 great many fish in the spawning season going up both the Tweed and the 

 Whitadder. After the net season was over the fish came up. It is their season 

 to come up then. 



Never saw such a mortal disease. Never saw clean fish diseased before. If 

 they had been diseased he would have seen them. Has seen kelts with fungus 

 on them for 50 years. It is quite a different disease to the fungus on clean fish. 

 The wound on the head causes death. The place on the head eats entirely 

 into the brain. There is no fungus on the head. It is not the same fungus as 

 the old kelt fungus. The fungus does not grow on the " trouble " on the 

 head. Has seen far worse fish than the specimens produced. The fungus is 

 caused by " poverty." By itse}f the fungus will not kill. 



The fish get up the pools and have no room. It is poverty that causes the 

 sore. 



Fish require a great deal of water. Put two or three kelts in a deep pool, and 

 in three or four days they were attacked by fungus. 



Would have another month's fishing with the net. The fish get up and do 

 not spawn because they get into a low state and cannot spawn. The real 

 months for fish to go up to spawn are November and December. The close 

 season was altered because of the rod fishermen. The river is entirely useless. 

 The anglers might agree to altering the close time. 



The fish have got fewer and fewer as there have been three, four, or five 

 months of close time. 



The kelts should be killed. They eat the spawn and turn up the gravel. 

 Has seen them do it. Would kill all kelts. Would sell them. They are 

 wholesome enough. 



Since kelts were preserved the fish are not larger. Saw as big fish 30 years 

 ago as now. The kelts do not come back. Kelts used to be sold and caugho 

 as kelts. They were sold cheap. Would like to return to the old law. The 



