164 SALMON FISHING 



in my own water, which is probably the best 

 stretch on the river, only from ten to twenty 

 fish are caught in a season. We had an excep- 

 tion in 1903, when some sixty-five fish were taken. 

 Several causes for the falling -off can be named. 

 The floods are of shorter duration and more violent 

 than they used to be; that is in consequence of 

 the draining of the hills. The fishing season, as 

 regards both nets and rods, is too long; I am 

 inclined to think that this has made the run of the 

 fish later. I fear that there is a great deal of 

 poaching in the upper waters ; and some proprietors 

 allow night fishing, during which many parr may be 

 killed as trout. The mouth of the Annan is a bad 

 entrance. The mud banks, which are constantly 

 shifting, tend to drive the fish out into the channel 

 of the Solway, and so up to the Esk, which has a 

 good entrance not far off. Of all the adversities on 

 the Annan, the violent rise and fall of the river, I 

 think, does most harm. Much spawn is destroyed 

 by the torrents." 



The TWEED has long been suffering severely. Sir 

 Herbert Maxwell favours me with a very interesting 

 exposition of the trouble and of the remedies that 

 should be applied : 



" The fecundity of the Tweed as a salmon river is 

 amazing. Drastic netting goes on in a long tidal 

 course during the open season ; there is irrepressible 

 poaching with drift nets at the mouth during the 

 close season ; rod-fishing is prolonged until the end 

 of November, when the fish are in a gravid state; 



