12 THE BORDER ANGLER. 



fixed nets, to a slight extension of the weekly close- 

 time, to a prohibition of the use of leisters under 

 any circumstances, and to a prohibition of killing 

 kelts or other foul fish. The Marquis of Westminster 

 was the Chairman of the House of Lords' Committee 

 on the Bill, and a number of the witnesses were re- 

 examined before them. The Lords' Committee agreed 

 in finding the preamble of the Bill proved, altering, 

 however, the period for closing the net-fishings from 

 the 14th September to the 30th of that month; but as 

 they neglected to make a similar extension of the time 

 allowed for rod-fishing, they — accidentally, we believe 

 — defrauded the anglers of the additional week of 

 gi'ace which the Ccwnmons' Committee Jiad given them, 

 and actually reduced the period of exclusive rod-fishing 

 to a fortnight, instead of the three weeks that had been 

 allowed under the old law. 



These, then, are the prominent enactments of the 

 new Tweed Fisheries Act. The aimual close-time for 

 net-fishing now extends from the 1st of October to the 

 1st of March, a fortniglit having been added to each 

 end of it. The rod-fishing close-time extends from the 

 15th of October to the 1st of March. Although there 

 are fish ready to spawn before the 1st of October, and 

 some which have not spawned even at the 1st of 

 March, the legal destruction of salmon at the point of 

 breeding will now be veiy small — so that the Tweed 

 fishers will be freed from the disgrace of doing what 

 was really poachei-s' work. A clause also prohibits the 

 killing of foul-fish ; but we fancy it will only be en- 

 forced against the killhig of kelts and baggots in the 

 spring^ — the difficulty of deciding when a fish becomes 



