xii SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED 



1889. One of 55 lbs., killed by Mr. Brereton on the 

 Willow bush, Mertoun (where Scrope frequently 

 fished). 



1892. One of 51 h lbs., killed at Birgham by Col. the Hon. 

 W, Home. 



Few seasons pass without salmon of upwards of 

 forty pounds being killed in the Tweed on the fly. 

 Scrope writes of kelt angling as inferior, indeed, to 

 fishing for clean salmon, but perfectly legitimate. 

 There can be little doubt that the preservation of 

 unclean, but mature fish, which may return from 

 the sea greatly increased in weight, has been the 

 cause of a notable increase in the size of individual 

 salmon. Murmurs are occasionally heard against 

 the favour shown to kelts, which are reputed to be 

 as ravenous as pike, and to eat numbers of the 

 young of their own species. Let those who incline 

 to take an unfavourable view of the morals of kelts 

 study the blue book published by the Scottish 

 Fishery Hoard, Report on Investigations into the 

 Life History of Salmon (1898)— one of the most 

 valuable and remarkable contributions hitherto 

 made to our knowledge of a difficult subject — and 

 they will receive scientific demonstration that, on 

 a salmon entering a river, its stomach undergoes 

 circulatory and other organic changes which render 

 it incapable of digestion ; and that as soon as it 

 resumes its functions after spawning — in short, 

 when appetite returns — the fish hastens back 

 to the sea, where alone instinct tells it that 

 appetite can be satisfied It follows, then, that 

 injury to smolts can only be done by those 

 kelts which are detained in the river by physical 

 obstacles to their descent, such as do not exist 



