DESTRUCTION OF PARRS 43 



instead of swimming downwards, where they would 

 have had a chance of safety, all kept scattering 

 upwards, and we actually killed them by hundreds. 

 But a fact, which I could not account for, was this, 

 namely, that they appeared to come up the 

 rivulet during the early part of the summer only ; 

 but after the month of September there were very 

 few to be seen, and not any in October ; and when 

 this discovery relative to the parr was first made, 

 and / think it was from yourself I had it twenty 

 years ago, I used to notice that there were scarcely 

 any parrs in the Tweed during the winter months/' 



So far Mr. Laidlaw. The disappearance of the 

 parrs from the burns is easily accounted for. They 

 would naturally avoid the cold shallow rivulets, 

 and fall into the deep and warmer water of the 

 Tweed during the winter months, where they could 

 not be well discovered, or be so subject to the 

 action of torrents. 



Besides the destruction of the fry in this and 

 similar modes, we must add the thousands that are 

 illegally taken at mill-dams, and the injury which 

 the long net occasions in sweeping over the spawn- 

 ing beds. In the evidence taken before a Committee 

 of the House of Commons in 1824 or 1825, there 

 was an attempt to prove that no harm could be 

 done in this latter manner, as there was no weight, 

 but only a rope attached at the bottom of the net. 

 This is very true ; but the rope itself is sufficiently 

 heavy to sink to the bottom, and disturb the gravel 

 of the spawning beds, which, being newly raked up, 

 and put together by the salmon, must be easily 

 displaced. It is fair, however, to observe, that the 



