32 THE SALMON RIVERS OF SCOTLAND 



previously, but sweep netting is still carried on to such an 

 extent as to make the weekly close time inoperative except in 

 times of flood. The stock reduced from its old abundance 

 seems to be fairly maintained at its lower level. There does 

 not, at any rate, appear to be any great falling off in the total 

 produce of the net fisheries during the last forty years, so far 

 as the figures available go to show. 



Between 1842 and 1856, the third week of July was the time, 

 as the returns show, when the greatest catches of the season 

 were made. From 1860 to 1894, the best catches were made 

 in the last week of August. In more recent reports, indications 

 are not absent that the two last weeks of the season (which 

 ends on 13th September), are more important than they used 

 to be. " The Autumn Net Fishing of 1907 was steady till the 

 end of the season," runs the Tweed Commissioners' Report 

 and the newspaper accounts of the Annual Meeting of the 

 Berwick Salmon Fisheries Co., " the last few weeks especially 

 giving excellent results." This is, no doubt, satisfactory for 

 those shareholders who in that year got their 15 per cent., but 

 in the general interests of the river I venture to think the 

 result unfortunate. 



Netting in the river is at present carried on, and has from 

 time immemorial been carried on, from Berwick to Coldstream, 

 a distance of 16 miles. About 62 nets are used at 39 

 stations. No part of the water which can be netted 

 is unworked. A weekly close time from 6 o'clock on Satur- 

 day evening to 6 o'clock on Monday morning exists, but 

 as already stated, the length of river netted is so great 

 that no material benefit is secured to the spawning stock of 

 fish in the river. The fish which pass through the lowest 

 fishings on Sunday are caught by the upper nets on Monday. 

 There is simply a transference of profit once a week. When 

 the river is in flood some fish get through the gauntlet of nets, 

 but under ordinary conditions no great head of fish available 

 for spawning purposes reach water above Kelso while the nets 

 are at work. The fish which form the breeding stock are the 

 late-running fish. Rod fishing in Tweed is an autumn sport. 

 Spring fish are removed by the nets ; and spring fish, be it 

 recollected, have been removed in this way for a very very long 

 time. In quite recent years, however, spring fish appear to 



