372 AN ANGLER'S RAMBLES 



side, either the body of sceptics must still be very numerous, or 

 there is an error somewhere, which leads to the continuance of a 

 practice quite indefensible, and telling severely, year after year, 

 on the produce of the river. I allude, of course, to the enormous 

 slaughter of infant salmon, under the designation of parr or 

 ( gairats,' which is carried on with the rod during the months of 

 July, August, September, and October, on Tweed and its tribu- 

 taries. That the actors in this protracted carnage, are, in many 

 instances, certainly not in all, thoughtless urchins, does not ex- 

 cuse the evil ; neither does it hold good as a reason for non-inter- 

 ference. In the altered condition of Tweed and its feeders, in 

 the greater facilities given from all quarters to visit them, in the 

 vastly increased and increasing numbers of anglers who frequent 

 their banks, arguments of far greater weight are to be found for 

 instituting, without delay, a rigid protection of the parr-stock. 

 The introduction of a fence season for smolts, extending simply, 

 by the Amendment Act of 1859, to two months (and these, be it 

 noted, forming the elite of the trouting season), is to all intents 

 and purposes an ignoring of the parr as the young of the salmon. 

 The salmon fry are virtually recognised by it as in occupancy of 

 the river only during the limited period above stated ; and no 

 regard has been paid to the fact, now proved beyond a doubt, 

 that in the shape of a parr- stock, they are there the whole year 

 through, and as such, during the autumnal months especially, are 

 liable to be thinned down by rod-fishers, to an extent which can 

 scarcely be credited. 



In a calculation made on allowed premisses, upwards of a 

 million of young fry, irrespective of those slain during the smolt 

 season, are sacrificed annually in this way, and in the name of 

 sport. A similar conclusion has been arrived at by two of the 

 Tweed Commissioners, whom I met last year, on the occasion of 

 one of the experimental markings sanctioned by the Act, after the 

 expiry of the netting season, and they quite concurred with me as 



