42 SALMON. 



to the Parr was first made, and / think it tvas from 

 yourself I had it twenty years ago, I used to notice that 

 there were scarcely any Parrs in the Tweed during the 

 winter months." 



So far Mr. Laidlaw. The disappearance of the Parrs 

 from the burns is easily accounted for. They would 

 naturally avoid the cold shallow rivulets, and fall into 

 the deep and warmer water of the Tweed during the 

 winter months, where they could not be well discovered, 

 or be so subject to the action of torrents. 



Besides the destruction of the fry in this and similar 

 modes, we must add the thousands that are illegally 

 taken at mill-dams, and the injury which the long net 

 occasions in sweeping over the spawning beds. In 

 the evidence taken before a Committee of the House 

 of Commons in 1824 or 1825, there was an attempt 

 to prove that no harm could be done in this latter 

 manner, as there was no weight, but only a rope 

 attached at the bottom of the net. This is very 

 true ; but the rope itself is sufficiently heavy to 

 sink to the bottom, and disturb the gravel of the 

 spawning beds, which, being newly raked up, and 

 put together by the Salmon, must be easily displaced. 

 It is fair, however, to observe, that the long net is 

 not used in the generality of such places as fish com- 

 monly spawn in. 



To these sweeping modes of destruction we must add 

 the great havoc committed by the eels and trout, which 

 devour the spawn ; and when we consider the peculiar 

 powers and habits of the eel, a fish most abundant in the 

 Tweed, we must at once see that a ruinous devastation 



