SALMON 255 



there is but little artificial manure to be washed into them by 

 floods. 



The Tweed itself, where the ravages of the disease have 

 been most severe, is a river swarming with all sorts of factories 

 on its banks, and the town of Galashiels in itself holds enough 

 of them to poison all the fish in all the rivers in Scotland. On 

 the Spey the numerous whiskey distilleries daily send their 

 poisonous refuse into the river, a few drops of which mixed 

 with water will speedily kill any smolts or par placed in it ; this 

 then being the case, I cannot but think, if some spirited pro- 

 prietor would put into force Lord Cross's Pollution Bill of 1893, 

 that the distillers could be compelled to discharge their refuse 

 elsewhere, even though at some expense to themselves ; but as 

 long as no one moves in the matter, the injury to the river 

 appears likely to be continued.* The Spey has the honour 

 of being the largest river in Scotland, but likewise it has the 

 disgrace of being the worst spring angling river on the east 

 coast ; also the drainage of the lands of the adjacent farms 

 is more perfect than on most rivers, and thus the rainfall, which 

 some years ago required two or three weeks to gradually dis- 

 charge itself into the river, is now exhausted in as many days. 



That fish return to the rivers they were born in has been 

 proved times without number, but there seems to be no rule as 

 to their rate of increase in weight ; some grow very rapidly, 

 and others very slowly. 



In February, 1893, a kelt was caught by the rod in the 

 Hampshire Avon ; it weighed sixteen pounds, was labelled, and 

 retaken in the nets at Christchurch just one year later, weighing 

 thirty-three pounds, but this appears to be an unusually rapid 

 rate of increase. 



There is also the oft-quoted instance of the late Duke of 

 Athol, who, in 1845, caught a kelt of ten pounds in the Tay, 

 and labelled it with a zinc label, No. 129, when five weeks and 



* The distillers are now compelled by law not to empty their "burnt ale" into 

 the river. 



