APPLICATION 201 



as they take it as readily in April as November, 

 there is no reason why they should not go as far to 

 seek it in the one month as the other. Another 

 point which the framers of the next bill upon the 

 salmon fisheries should keep prominently in view 

 is the protection of the young salmon or parr. During 

 the months of April and May, when they are chang- 

 ing into smelts and migrating to the sea, killing them 

 is an offence liable to heavy fines ; but for the rest 

 of the season the poor silly parr is at the mercy of 

 every boy who can muster twopence to buy gut and 

 hooks; and thousands of them are slaughtered in 

 Tweed every day during summer, and not by boys 

 only, but by grown men pretending to be anglers. 

 If such have not sufficient skill to capture trout, we 

 hope the law will step in to prevent them massacring 

 innocents in this manner.* 



In the first chapter of this volume it was mentioned 

 that there were not three days from May till October 

 in which a good angler should not kill at least twelve 

 pounds weight of trout in any county in the south of 

 Scotland. There are days when he may easily kill 

 twice that quantity, and the angler who, fishing 

 a whole day that is to say, for nine or ten hours 

 cannot capture on an average fifteen pounds a day, 



* Since we wrote the above passage, both roe-fishing and 

 killing parr have been made illegal ; but as we believe both aie 

 still carried on, if not so openly, nearly as destructively as ever, 

 we have allowed the passage to stand, and hope all honest anglers 

 will set their faces against such a disgraceful infringement, not 

 only of the law, but of fair fishing, and not bring discredit upon 

 the fair fame of the craft. 



