INCREASE OF ANGLERS. 29 



afford shelter to the fish. The last reason we shall 

 assign for the decrease of trout is the enormous 

 increase of anglers of late years ; there are twenty 

 anglers now for one there was fifty years ago. A 

 gentleman who resided on Tweedside about the 

 beginning of the present century says' that he and 

 one or two others were the only anglers in a district 

 comprising many miles of water. Then, when a 

 flood came, Tweed remained large for ten days, and 

 was swarming with trout so unwary that they could 

 be caught with tackle and flies which a modern 

 angler would reject as totally useless. Look at 

 the state of the case now. How widely different ! 

 Every villager has a rod, and uses it, with more 

 effect too than most amateur anglers; and it is 

 not at all uncommon to be unable of an evening to 

 get a single pool or stream to yourself ; and on a 

 favourable day in the month of May, " Tweed's fair 

 river, broad and deep," will be fished by many 

 hundred followers of the gentle craft. Now, as 

 almost all these catch a few trout, and some of 

 them catch large basketsful, it is obvious that this 

 must diminish the number of trout. The present 

 scarcity of trout is forcing itself upon the attention 

 of anglers, and it is sometimes suggested that trout 

 should get a jubilee ; but apart from the impossi- 

 bility of ever carrying such a design into execution, 

 this is unnecessary; if net-fishing was entirely 

 stopped, the streams would quickly regain a por- 

 tion at least of their old fame. The trout taken 



