SCOTLAND 169 



sport, and indeed I could hear of no one on Tweed- 

 side who had surpassed my day's work of the 17th. 

 Mr. Shiels fished but little, and only killed four 

 salmon during the five days." 



The TEVIOT, in the shire of Roxburgh, is the 

 subject of a sad tale. Mr. Walter Haddon, who 

 has fished the river and its tributaries within a ten- 

 miles radius of Hawick for over fifty years, writes : 



"Since the formation, in 1881, of the Upper 

 Teviotdale Fisheries Association a combination of 

 the riparian proprietors of the Teviot and its tribu- 

 taries above Ancrum bridge I have acted as the 

 Secretary of that body, the object of which is to 

 protect the fresh - water trout and improve the 

 angling in the waters under its control. In the 

 'forties and early 'fifties the waters in this neighbour- 

 hood were most plentifully stocked with fish of all 

 kinds. There was abundance for everybody. In the 

 later 'fifties and during the 'sixties and 'seventies 

 the falling-oiF was lamentable ; it is so even now. 

 With all the protective measures adopted by the 

 Tweed Commissioners, the Upper Teviotdale Fish- 

 eries Association, and Angling Societies, the stock 

 in the Teviot is only a small fraction of what it was 

 fifty years ago. I attribute this to the destruction 

 of fish and spawn by pollution from towns and 

 villages. The effects of that contamination are 

 enormously increased by the draining of agricultural 

 land. About fifty years ago, after a few days' heavy 

 rain the Teviot ran in flood for a week or ten days ; 

 but now the drains bring the water off the land with 



