TWEED FISHERY REPORTS 261 



succeeding stage of life, should any be afterwards 

 captured. . . . 



* With the same object, the Commissioners 

 drew out a series of queries, and circulated them 

 among persons supposed to have any knowledge 

 of the fish inhabiting the Tweed. Overseers of 

 fisheries, superintendents of water-bailiffs, intel- 

 ligent fishermen, amateur anglers, and men of 

 science versed in ichthyology, gave answers to 

 these queries, or to such of them as suited 

 their varied experience, observation, and re- 

 searches.' 



The foregoing is an extract from the preface of 

 the reports instituted regarding the fish frequent- 

 ing the Tweed and its tributaries. In preparing my 

 notes for the compilation of this work, it occurred 

 to me that if I were to carefully study the 

 reports above referred to, and to select from 

 the sixty different queries given those which I 

 considered likely to prove of interest to the 

 reader, and weigh the answers given by the 

 nineteen individuals who responded to these 

 queries, I could obtain a very fair average of 

 opinions, and also be thus enabled to give 

 the reader a better account of the life and 

 ways of the migratory Salmonidae than by 

 means of any long-winded and possibly dreary 

 dissertation of my own. It was a somewhat 

 tedious and fidgety task ; but having completed 



