1903-1904] Presidential Address. I53 



The close-times include Sabbath protection for much that 

 lives and has its being. Fish, for example, can rest during 

 six days of the week and safely make a rush for the upper 

 reaches on the seventh. In our own city's silvery stream — 

 the Water of Leith — the trout enjoy, or are supposed to do 

 so, by Act of Parliament, an uninterrupted freedom from 

 October till March, and the same from March till October 

 except on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Even then their 

 liberties and their lives are endangered only by the privileged 

 few anglers who have armed themselves with a permit for 

 the day from our town-clerk. In this connection I would 

 suggest for one of our excursions a visit to the hatchery in 

 the bed of the river a little way down-stream below the Dean 

 Bridge — the existence of which may be news to most of 

 our citizens who do not know that we there rear our trout, 

 literally, " on the premises," and which may be caught, like 

 boot-repairing, " while you wait." The disciples of St Crispin 

 do not indicate how long one has to wait for boot-repairing, 

 but the disciples of Izaak Walton will find by experience how 

 long they may have to wait on the banks of the Water of 

 Leith for — even a nibble ! Here are a couple of trout — a 

 half-pounder and a quarter-pounder — I myself caught one 

 morning before breakfast in that stream as it passes through 

 the gardens in front of my house in Eton Terrace, within 

 ten minutes' walk of Princes Street ! 



Again, there is also the well-known protection of colour, 

 that being in keeping with the environment of the living 

 creature — the tiger with its stripes in the rank growth of the 

 jungle, the grouse among the heather, and the caterpillar on 

 the green stalk being familiar instances. The " snake in the 

 grass " has become a proverbial way of indicating a sneaking 

 fellow who, concealing himself until close up, stealthily and 

 suddenly strikes the unexpected blow. Colour-protection is 

 adaptable, as in the hare and the ermine, which have each his 

 summer coat of yellow reddish-brown and his winter coat of 

 snowy white. The flounder — a type of the flat-fish — affords 

 an excellent example of Nature adjusting colour to suit 

 environment. When born it is of one and the same whitish 

 colour on both sides and an eye on each — upper and lower. 

 As it grows it settles down one side bottomwards and the 



