22 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED 



salmon himself wastes from the moment he comes 

 into fresh water. 



" If the Committee make themselves perfectly 

 acquainted with the natural history of the salmon, 

 they will be aware of the peculiar construction of 

 the eye of that fish. Dr. Brewster 1 has been so 

 obliging as to examine for me the eyes of some 

 parrs, which I sent him for that purpose ; and 

 replies, 'I have examined very carefully the 

 crystalline lenses of the parr, which I find to be 

 the same with those of the salmon, which is a strong 

 confirmation of your opinion.' 



" I must add, that these parrs, as they are called, 

 are never found but in salmon rivers, or in such as 

 have an uninterrupted communication with them ; 

 and that they cannot be the young of the bull trout, 

 as the formation of the tail in that fish is wholly 

 different. 



"When it is considered that trout fishing is 

 enjoyed by every class of people in Scotland, and 

 that, speaking with reference to the river Tweed 

 only and its different tributary streams, hundreds 

 and hundreds of people are trouting daily, and 

 that each person catches several dozen parrs in 

 a morning, except in that interval between the 

 disappearance of the old fry and the appearance of 

 the new in a forward state, it will be found that 

 the young salmon (for such I contest they are) so 

 destroyed will amount to considerably more than 

 the whole marketable produce of the river. 2 



1 Afterwards Sir David Brewster. 



2 It is scarcely necessary to observe that Mr. Scrope's opinion as to 

 the identity of parr with salmon smolts has been established beyond all 

 question, and that it is now illegal to kill either. ED. 



