Transactions. 17 



increased, some being- washed away, some buried, and others left 

 dry. They found pollution had greatly increased, they found 

 the fungus more virulent, and they found that poaching had in- 

 creased, because the fish were much more valuable than they 

 used to be and much easier of access. He ventured to say that it 

 would very often pay better to take them away altogether than to 

 watch them. There might be cases where fish were left weather- 

 bound in pools and watched continually by men paid for doing so. 

 If the river were in the hands of a proper pisciculturist he would, 

 if the fish could not get away themselves, take them out of the 

 pool and carry them to the proper place. The advantages that 

 had resulted from cultivation in New Zealand and the United 

 States could, he assured them, te obtained elsewhere. They had 

 proof sufficient of how the thing could be done, and let them get 

 to work without the loss of more valuable time. 



Mr Johnstone-Douglas asked if Mr Armistead could give any 

 indication of his views as to the origm, the cause, and the possible 

 prevention of the salmon disease ? 



Mr Armistead, in reply, said there were several ways of 

 curing salmon disease, and stated that he had cured a great many 

 fish that had been affected by giving them a bath in a chemical 

 solution or putting chemicals on them. Permanganate of potash 

 was one remedy, common salt was an excellent thing, but the best 

 they could get was sea water. They knew that sea water was 

 absolutely fatal to this fungus growth. The fungus, he affirmed, 

 could not live m the sea, but he knew this had been disputed. 

 He had cured hundreds of fish by immersing them for a consider- 

 able time in salt water. Very often that dose required to be 

 repeated for a considerable number of times. The disease, how- 

 ever, was quite easily cured in this way. But to apply the remedy 

 to salmon in a river might be a very difficult matter ; still, he 

 thought it might be done in many cases. If the fish were in a fit 

 condition for the change, they should be got away to sea by all 

 means ; and if that were done he believed four-fifths of the 

 diseased salmon would be cured immediately if they were not too 

 far gone. 



The Chairman supposed the salmon had been the subject of 

 more separate Acts of Parliament from very early times in our 

 history than any other item in the fauna of Scotland; but its 

 humbler relative the trout, he believed, was not the subject of a 



