398 AN ANGLER'S RAMBLES 



an indirect means of assisting salmon protection in the introduc- 

 tion of a trouting license, I do not wish to be understood as 

 favouring a combination of the two interests. They stand, when 

 carefully examined, quite independent of each other, and the 

 proper protection of either interest by itself in the hands of its 

 natural guardians would assist to confirm that independence ; 

 still there are mutual relations holding betwixt them which 

 ought to be acknowledged, the more particularly when, as in 

 this case, they may be made to work together with mutual 

 advantage. The proceeds of a trouting license, based on popular 

 principles, would, I am of opinion, secure a large amount of pro- 

 tection to our Border streams. Even at the moderate charge of 

 a shilling to the party providing himself with it, the trouting 

 license would draw a considerable revenue, not less, in all pro- 

 bability, than ,300. It would embrace among its holders a 

 large proportion of the male population of the counties of Rox- 

 burgh, Berwick, Selkirk, Peebles, and Northumberland ; it would 

 find also, in these days of quick transit, plenty of supporters 

 from Edinburgh, and other towns at a reasonable distance. As a 

 manifestation of how it would operate from the direction of the 

 Scottish capital, the effect of a summer holiday in crowding the 

 railway trains with clerkly anglers might be instanced, it being 

 notorious, that at the stations situated on Gala-water alone, up- 

 wards of forty disciples of Walton have been frequently deposited 

 in the course of a single morning, not one of whom, I venture to 

 say, would grudge the payment of a small sum annually for the 

 purpose of bettering his chance of sport. 



In the event, however, of a system of trouting licenses being 

 instituted and followed out, the proceeds arising from this 

 source might be greatly increased by the adoption of a scale 

 of charges, founded on a proper regard to the circumstances 

 and opportunities of the different members of the angling com- 

 munity. 



