RAPID DECREASE OF SALMON. 9 



kelts in spring-, grilse in summer and autumn, and a 

 few salmon heavy with spawn in the three weeks of 

 grace allowed to anglers after the net-fishings have 

 closed. By an Act passed in 1857, however, very 

 considerable changes have been effected in the salmon - 

 law of the Tweed : the killing of kelts and foul fish is 

 now prohibited, and some small very small addi- 

 tional chances of getting clean fish have been afforded 

 to the angler. A heavy flood occurring on a Saturday 

 (salmon are always induced by floods to leave the sea 

 and ascend the river) gives them an opportunity of 

 running up on the Sunday when no nets are working, 

 and of getting within the reach of the rod-fisher. This, 

 however, has been about the only chance that there 

 was ; for, when all the nets .were working night and 

 day, the chances that the fish which passed Spittal 

 Point would reach even Coldstream Bridge have been 

 poor indeed. Those that have missed the stell-nets at 

 Tweedmouth have fallen a prey to the sweep-nets at 

 Ord ; those that have escaped both of these have had 

 to run the gauntlet of many similar nets at Horncliffe, 

 Norham, and Tweedmill ; while, if the strength of the 

 current has induced the salmon to retire into a tempting 

 eddy at the side to rest himself, ten to one but there 

 has been a treacherous cairn-net to bar his progress 

 outward, allowing him merely to get his gills through, 

 and hang himself, when he desired again to set out on 

 his journey. 



Indeed, so rapid and alarming had been the de- 

 crease of the fish, that the necessity of doing something 

 to prevent a hastening extinction of the salmon alto- 

 gether had, within the last few years, become apparent 



