PARRS AND SMOLTS 23 



" By your present Bill I know not how far the 

 local Scotch Acts may be repealed ; but I take the 

 liberty of suggesting that it would be for the public 

 benefit if the usage of a pout net in close time were 

 made punishable by a fine. The inhabitants of 

 almost every cottage have these nets, which are 

 taken out under pretence of catching trout, which 

 no one but a proprietor has a right to do in such a 

 way. I have heard that above a thousand salmon 

 have been taken in a small space of the Tweed by 

 these nets during close time. They are most 

 destructive below the backs of caulds, where the 

 fish collect in order to ascend. 



" I should have mentioned before, that what we 

 call the parr in the Tweed goes by various other 

 names in the different rivers of Great Britain, which 

 is a material circumstance to note. 



" If you are desirous of any further information 

 on this subject, I shall most readily give you such 

 as may be in my power. What I have already 

 said is of a nature that cannot make me be sus- 

 pected of having any private or party view to 

 answer. 



" I have the honour to be," &c. &c. 



The above being the first draught, I omitted to 

 put a date to it ; but it was written many years 

 before Mr. Shaw's experiments. For Mr. Kennedy's 

 Bill, to which my letter alludes, was brought in on 

 the 15th of April, 1825, and thrown out on the 

 second reading. 



I received a very obliging answer from that 

 gentleman, the purport of which was to say, that 



