192 THE BORDER ANGLER. 



measure, and he trusted that these factories would do as those 

 at Hawick, Selkirk, and Galashiels had done, where, under the 

 pressure of the Tweed Commissioners, they had made arrange- 

 ments by which the water was so filtered that the poisonous in- 

 gredients were prevented getting into the river. 



" Viscount Melville said that he also was one of the sufferers 

 from this grievance. There could be no doubt that deleterious 

 liquids were allowed to find their way from these factories into 

 the stream ; this was shown by the white foam that came down 

 daily from the mills at Lasswade ; and at one mill opposite to 

 Mavisbank he thought the nuisance perfectly unjustifiable. The 

 mischief that these mills had created was past all belief, and he 

 hoped that something would be done to remedy the evil. 



" Mr. C. Cowan said, that from the extent to which manu- 

 facturing had increased upon the banks of the North Esk, they 

 could scarcely expect that the stream should be as pellucid as 

 it was in the days of their forefathers. He wished, however, to 

 state, for his partners and himself, that they had adopted, and 

 continued to enforce as much as possible, every means for re- 

 ducing the evil to its lowest possible amount; and he believed 

 it was the general wish of all his brethren in the trade, from 

 Penicuick to Dalkeith, to do everything in their power for that 

 purpose. They must bear in mind, however, that paper-making 

 was not the only cause of the evil now complained of. There 

 were coal-wastes along the stream, the refuse from which he be- 

 lieved to be most destructive to animal life. Gas-tar was also 

 another pernicious ingredient that found its way into the 

 stream. Ill addition to that, they had found a practice prevail- 

 ing of stealing chloride of lime from the works for the purpose 

 of destroying fish a practice which it was by no means easy to 

 ensure them against. He did not deny that there was ground 

 of complaint, but he was afraid that much of it was inseparable 

 from the growth of manufactures and the extent to which they 

 were carried on. He believed, however, that the construction 

 of reservoirs for storing water for the summer season would tend 

 in a considerable degree to meet the evil. 



" Mr. Scott Moncrieff said, that ever since he knew the river 

 it had been the receptacle of the sewage of the little towns on 

 its banks; but it was only of late that poisonous ingredients had 

 flowed into it from the paper factories. There used to be abun- 

 dance of trout in both rivers; now there were none. There was 

 a great change for the worse, which he could not attribute to 

 anything but the extension of the paper-works, and he could 

 not but think that through the exertions of the. proprietors of 

 these mills the nuisance might be diminished. 



" Sir W. Gibson-Craig thought the question was not purely a 



