Gumming, mentioned as taking an active part in getting, if possible, 

 what he calls " that mistaken piece of legislation, the Sea Birds' 

 Preservation Act" altogether repealed, on the plea of the serious 

 damage caused by it to our Fisheries, both as regards salmon and 

 herring — a subject on which I hope to be able to show there is little 

 cause of apprehension, and that the fears entertained are in a great 

 measure perfectly groundless, at least as far as concerns the Tay, and I 

 firmly believe the same will be found equally to apply to all other 

 districts. I must, therefore, crave your indulgence if I dilate hereafter 

 upon it somewhat fully. But to proceed to my subject. The Estuary 

 of the Tay may properly be said to commence at the mouth of tlie 

 Earn ; but taking a bit of the river four miles higher up from Kinfauns, 

 which, though narrower, is so much of the same character as to induce 

 me to include it, we have a total distance from the above place to 

 Buddonness, at the mouth, of 28 miles, varying from a quarter of a 

 mile at high water to 3 and 3i at the widest parts about Powgavie and 

 Invergowrie, a distance of 5 miles or so between, where, with its 

 numerous sandbanks uncovered for many hours each tide, its intricate 

 cliannels, and its deep oozy shores stretching for miles along the 

 northern bank, fringed with dense massive reed-brakes and wide marshy 

 muddy tracts, covered with what is commonly called salt grass — a 

 mixture of reed meadow grass (Poa Maritvma) and reed canary grass 

 (Diyrapkis Arundinacea), interspersed with sea club rush (Scirpus 

 Maritimus) and glaucous bull rush, (Scirpus Tahernoimontani), where 

 snipe, teal, and duck loved to have their home, and on the roots of which 

 wild geese and other birds of the duck tribe were wont to feed — while 

 on the southern side the island of Mugdrum, extending at low water 

 fur a couple of miles or more, surrounded with its thick reeds and deep 

 mud banks clothed with the same kind of vegetation, renders this 

 upper part of the Estuary, especially from its position, ninning, as it 

 does, at the foot of the rich alluvial deposits of the Carse of Gowrie, 

 a peculiarly favourite resort for wild-fowl, affording the best of 

 feeding, with shelter and retirement. Again, lower down on the 

 salt Avater, it is well adapted for the harbouring of many sea 

 birds which frequent the neighbouring coasts, margined as it is 

 by the extensive flats and sandhills of Barry and Tents-muir — in 

 former days the great breeding district and very paradise for the various 

 waders and web-footed birds, which once unmolested were there enabled 

 to rear their young in peace and safety ; but now, alas ! a different 

 story must be told, both as regards Tents-muir and every other part of 

 the Tay. It is not, however, impossible but that with a little care and 

 solicitude un the part of ihu.se who will interest Ihemsehes, and are in 



