AND THEIR INHABITANTS. 175 



it rises in the mountains of Westmoreland ; it is 

 beyond the " Lake District," and therefore has not 

 the intense interest for the tourist in these parts 

 which the Derwent has. In March, 1879, owners of 

 salmon-fisheries were much disturbed by the alarming 

 reports of a fungoid disease on the salmon of the 

 Eden. It generally first attacked the head, and ex- 

 tended from thence to the tail. Ulcerating sores 

 ensued, and the fish was generally blinded by the 

 spread of the fungus in the eyes. Maddened by the 

 irritation thus caused, and not being able to see its 

 way, the fish generally killed itself by coming violently 

 against some obstacle. Mr. Frank Buckland, Inspec- 

 tor of Salmon Fisheries, said it was due to over- 

 crowding in the river Eden. The fungus was very 

 contagious and malignant, irritating the skin of the 

 operators who dissected the salmon. The police col- 

 lected and buried 1,271 salmon affected by the 

 disease. Mr. Frank Buckland, with a view to his 

 seventeenth annual Report laid before Parliament, 

 in 1878, asked me to examine the fungus on the Eden 

 fish, and the result of my examination being printed 

 in the Report, I quote it here : 



"The growth and transformation of the micro- 

 fungi are amongst the most remarkable of organic 

 metamorphoses. Mr. Frank Buckland having placed 

 in my hands a piece of salmon's fin infected with 

 fungi, which he cut off from a fish in my presence, 

 I am able to say, from having carefully examined it 

 microscopically, that it is the Saprolegnia ferox. Mr. 

 Frank Buckland dissected in my presence the stomach 

 of a salmon, and found in it some granules which he 



