0Z FISHES. 



a clean fresh salmon shall sell from a shilling to eighteen. pence a 

 pound ; and most of the time that this part of the trade is carried 

 on, the prices are from five to nine shillings per stone*, the value 

 rising and falling according to the plenty of fish, or the prospect 

 of a fair or foul windi; Some fish are sent in this manner to 

 London the latter end of September, when the weather proves 

 cool, but the fish are then full of large roes, grow very thin-bel. 

 lied, and are not esteemed either palatable or wholesome. The 

 price of fresh fish, in the month of July, when they are most 

 plentiful, has been known to be as low as Sd. per stone. 



" The season for fishing in the Tweed begings Nov. the 30th, 

 but ihe fishermen work very little till after Christmas. It ends on 

 JMichaelmas day ; yet the corporation of Berwick (who are the 

 conservators of the river) indulge the fishermen with a fortnight 

 past that time,, on account of the change of the style. 



There are on the river forty-one considerable fisheries, extend- 

 ing upwards, about fourteen miles from the mouth (the others 

 being of no great value), which are rented for near . 5400 per 

 annum. The expense attending the servants' wages, nets, boats, 

 &c. amounts to . 5000 more, which together makes up the sum 

 jB. 10400. Now in consequence the produce must defray all, and 

 no less than twenty times the sum of fish will effect it, so that 

 208000 salmon must be caught there, one year with another." 



The general length of the salmon is from two and a- half to three 

 feet, but sometimes much more | : the male is principally distin- 

 guished by the curvature of the jaws; both the upper and lower 

 mandible bending towards each other more or less in different 

 individuals, and at different seasons. The general colour of both 

 sexes is a silvery grey, of a much darker cast on the back: the 

 sides of the male are marked with numerous, small, irregular, 

 dusky and copper-coloured spots; while those of the female exhibit 



* A stone of salmon weighs 181b. 20 ounces and a half; or, in other terms, 

 four stones, or forty-six pounds avoirdupoise, is only three stones, or 421b. 

 fish-weight at Berwick, 



+ The salmon sent from Berwick to London are, at present, generally 

 packed in ice, which is preserved in ice-houses throughout the winter for that 

 purpose. 



^ It is said to he sometimes found of the length of six feet. Mr. Pennant 

 mentions ne of seventy-four pounds weight as the largest he ever heard of. 



