ST. BOS JV ELLS. 227 



river acts and river bailififs, it is notorious that in our best 

 streams (I am speaking of the North), illegal practices of 

 the most depopulating character are largely carried on. 

 Netting is one of the most common expedients resorted 

 to. Stewart says : — 



'■ The net used is what is usually called the ' harry-water net.' Nets of 

 this kind are made so light that they can be carried in the pocket, and so 

 complete in structure, that a whole pool may be almost cleaned of its 

 finny inhabitants at a single haul. Tweed and its tributaries suffer more 

 from netting than any other streams in Scotland, and it is most usually 

 carried on in the neighbourhood of towns or villages, where the poachers 

 can find a ready sale for their trout." 



It is generally agreed that the only radical cure for this 

 evil is watching the rivers ; but this, in consequence of the 

 expense attending it, is seldom so thoroughly carried out 

 as to be efficacious. Pollution is more deadly, certainly 

 more insidious in its effects than even poaching, and more 

 difficult to deal with. Even under a modified form, a 

 decided deterioration in the race, and a falling off in 

 numbers, must inevitably take place. Just as among that 

 unfortunate portion of the human family who live under 

 unhealthy conditions, breathing bad air and not getting 

 proper nourishment, we have disease nearly always 

 prevalent, and deterioration becoming more apparent in 

 every generation ; so that if left to themselves, and not in 

 some degree resuscitated by the infusion of extraneous 

 blood, in course of time they would die out; so, under the 

 conditions at present existing in many of our fishing 

 rivers, were it not for the constant flow of pure water 

 from unvitiated tributaries into the main current, and the 

 introduction of strong, healthy fish from the same sources, 



