AND ANGLING SONGS. 395 



other words, that the annual close-time, as far as rod-fishing is 

 concerned, should be made to extend to the 15th of March, 

 instead of concluding, as at present, on the 31st of January. In 

 venturing this opinion, I have the satisfaction of knowing that 

 it is shared by nearly every one who takes an interest in the 

 salmon-fishings of Tweed. 



Kelt-fishing, when linked with the chance of falling in, now 

 and then, with a clean salmon, affords no doubt some amuse- 

 ment ; but that chance, as the experience of anglers since the 

 passing of the Act of 1859 has shown, is, during February and 

 March, so remote, and the disappointments of those trusting to 

 it are usually so numerous, as to justify us in affirming that the 

 edge of the sport has at length been fairly worn out. 



The next desideratum in regard to Tweed, is one which, 

 although it does not properly come within the province of those 

 interested in the salmon -fishings of the river to deal with, has 

 its bearings in a parallel direction. The expediency, or rather 

 urgency, taking into account the altered circumstances of our 

 Border rivers, and the vast accession which railway communica- 

 tion has assisted in making to their frequenters, of instituting a 

 close-time for trout-fishing, is generally admitted. Nor ought 

 there to be the slightest delay, through the intervention of estab- 

 lished fishing associations, etc., in bringing this institution to 

 bear. I would propose that the trouting close-time should not 

 only embrace the fence season, which at present rules in regard 

 to salmon-fishing, but that it should extend in spring to the 15th 

 of March, and in the latter part of the year include, on all streams 

 not made use of by the solar and eriox for spawning purposes, 

 the months of October and November. To apply it to the wider 

 stretches of Tweed during these months, as I have already shown, 

 would be to give countenance to the greatest enemy which the 

 solar or true salmon has. 



Another requirement, which the present exigencies of the 



