ILLEGAL POACHINCt. 99 



with the Shorter Ccatechism and the Whole Duty of jNIan 

 — are far from recognising the obligations laid down 

 in certain statutes made and provided for the protec- 

 tion of the salmon-fisheries of the river Tweed and its 

 tributaries. Combining the poaching in the upper 

 streams with the netting of kelts in the lower part of 

 the Tweed, probably not ten per cent of the fish that 

 have entered in winter to spawn have hitherto been 

 allowed to return to the sea. Those killed in this way 

 have not, of course, appeared in any statistics of the 

 annual yield of salmon, but nevertheless have exceeded 

 the entire numbers of clean fish taken in the proper 

 season ; and, taking this slaughter along with the cap- 

 ture of grilses, which are fish that are killed before 

 they have ever helped to propagate their kind, we have 

 what might appear amply sufficient reasons for the 

 diminution of salmon. Unless, indeed, they breed in 

 the sea — which there is no good ground for believing 

 — we cannot help being amazed at the extraordinary 

 fecundity which keeps up the species as it is kept up 

 in the face of so many and such comprehensive de- 

 structive processes ; for after all, it is not until, as in 

 the case of the Clyde, the filth of a great city and its 

 factories gives the finishing blow, that the salmon is 

 rooted out from our rivers. Even in the Clyde, a few 

 fish still make their way up every year past Glasgow 

 to Stonebyres Linn. 



Luckily, the river-trout is individually nearly as 

 prolific as the salmon, and there is less temptation to 

 pursue it by the methods or to the extent that would 

 involve the risk of destroying the breed. There has 

 always been and still is a certain amount of netting, 



