250 AN ANGLER'S RAMBLES 



nexion with the pasturage-lands and tillage grounds of the 

 Borders, that are to be traced, without question, these droughts 

 to which, during the summer and autumnal months, the whole 

 range of our valley land has become statedly subject. Five-and- 

 twenty years ago such phenomena were of rare occurrence. 

 Tweed could then be relied on as affording opportunities, during 

 the grilse season, for thousands of fine fish to ascend its waters as 

 high as Innerleithen. At St. Boswell's Fair, which is held on the 

 18th July, the caterers for the entertainment of its frequenters 

 were not dependent, as they now are, for their supply of salmon 

 from Berwick-on-Tweed, but could trust to its being furnished to 

 them from the fisheries in the upper reaches of the river, those 

 in the vicinity of Kelso, if not of St. Boswell's Green. Such has 

 not been the case for a number of seasons. Other reasons may 

 be given, but the main one is that the fish now-a-days are not 

 there. For the last twelve years and upwards, owing to the 

 droughts entailed upon the river, they have had no opportunity, 

 save as stragglers, to ascend higher than Tweedmill, situated 

 three or four miles below Coldstream ; and not before the nets 

 are laid aside in the middle of September, nor even then, unless 

 floods actually occur, do they show face in any quantity in the 

 higher stretches of Tweed. 



The community and fishing interests being beyond a doubt 

 prejudiced by the wholesale system in operation, the question 

 may be put, Are they bound to submit to it, or rather, seeing 

 that it has been submitted to so long, with the faintest show of 

 protest, have they the power to arrest it ? I cannot but foresee 

 the time when it will become a subject of national regret that no 

 steps had been taken at the proper juncture to sustain the repute 

 of our noble river, and rescue it from a fate similar to what has 

 befallen many of the finest streams in our sister-land, associated, 

 like Tweed, with events of historical interest, and at one time 

 teeming with salmon. 



