28 FRESH- WATER TROUT. 



that they can be carried in the pocket, and so com- 

 plete in structure, that a whole pool may be almost 

 cleaned of its finny inhabitants at a single haul. 

 Tweed and its tributaries suffer more from netting 

 than any other streams in Scotland, and it is most 

 usually carried on in the neighbourhood of towns 

 or villages, where the poachers can find a ready 

 sale for their trout. 



There are three remedies which might be adopted 

 to prevent netting. The first, and undoubtedly 

 the most efficacious of these, is to have the rivers 

 watched ; but this is so expensive as to render it 

 quite impracticable. Another way is to drive stakes 

 into the principal pools and streams, which would 

 prevent nets being drawn through. During the 

 last few years this has been tried, and we understand 

 with great success, in some streams in the neighbour- 

 hood of Hawick. Gala Water was also staked a few 

 years ago, and an association formed for the protec- 

 tion of the river, called the Gala Angling Associa- 

 tion, which every angler who visits that stream 

 should join. It is, however, too soon yet to speak 

 of the effects of this upon Gala, but we have no 

 doubt it will prove highly beneficial. Stakes, how- 

 ever, are liable to this objection, that they interfere 

 with the angler while landing a fish, or when using 

 the worm. The last and most feasible plan is to 

 put large stones in the water, which would have 

 the same effect as the stakes, and would not, like 

 them, interfere with the angler, and would also 



