FRESHWATER TROUT 27 



are twenty anglers now for one there was fifty years 

 ago. A gentleman who resided on Tweedside about 

 the beginning of the present century says that he 

 and one or two others were the only anglers in a 

 district comprising many miles of water. Then, 

 when a flood came, Tweed remained large for ten days, 

 and was swarming with trout so unwary that they 

 could be caught with tackle and flies which a modern 

 angler would reject as totally useless. Look at the 

 state of the case now. How widely different ! 

 Every villager has a rod, and uses it, with more 

 effect too than most amateur anglers ; and it is not 

 at all uncommon to be unable of an evening to get 

 a single pool or stream to yourself; and on a favour- 

 able day in the month of May, " Tweed's fair river, 

 broad and deep," will be fished by many hundred 

 followers of the gentle craft. Now, as almost all 

 these catch a few trout, and some of them catch 

 large basketsful, it is obvious that this must diminish 

 the number of trout. The present scarcity of trout 

 is forcing itself upon the attention of anglers, and 

 it is sometimes suggested that trout should get a 

 jubilee ; but apart from the impossibility of ever 

 carrying such a design into execution, this is un- 

 necessary ; if net fishing was entirely stopped, the 

 streams would quickly regain a portion at least of 

 their old fame. The trout taken by the rod in some 

 districts are often few compared with those taken by 

 the net. It is not by the dozen, nor yet by the 

 basketful, that net-fishers count their spoils, but by 

 the hundredweight, and this, of course, must speedily 



