FRESHWATER TROUT 25 



this to vanish, and in its place a pestilential sewer? 

 Is that which spreads health and beauty around to 

 become an eyesore, extending over half the breadth 

 of Scotland ? Shall the turrets of Abbotsford be 

 reflected from a monster gutter, all stains and stench ? 

 Shall fair Melrose, instead of being < viewed aright 

 by the pale moonlight, 1 be nosed in the dark ? For- 

 bid it, all the powers of Parliament ! If, indeed, 

 that prohibition could not be uttered without 

 destroying or impeding the brisk and cheerful in- 

 dustry which has sprung up among these sweet 

 hills, there might be nothing for it but to sigh and 

 submit. But it would be almost profane to doubt 

 that from so great an evil there must be means of 

 escape that Hawick may prosper, and yet Tweed be 

 preserved." 



If trout alone were concerned, there is little doubt 

 that they would be left to their fate, and come to an 

 ignominious, unhonoured, but not unmourned-for 

 end ; but now that valuable property in the salmon- 

 fishings is imperilled, there seems some prospect that 

 the powers of Parliament, which have been so 

 pathetically appealed to, may interfere. 



Another of the most fruitful causes of the 

 depopulation of our streams is netting, and it has 

 greatly increased of late years. The rivers are now 

 so exceedingly small during summer, that they afford 

 every facility for the successful practice of this illegal 

 method of catching trout. The net used for this pur- 

 pose is what is usually called " the harry-water net." 

 Nets of this kind are made so light that they can be 



