153 



The young of the salmon, on their way down to the 

 sea, are preyed on by many enemies. Sea-gulls and 

 herons devour them in large quantities. When they reach 

 the mouth of the river, there are millions of "podlies" 

 (Merlangus carbonarius) watching for them. The Tweed 

 Commissioners, to lessen the slaughter, employ boats and 

 nets to catch these " podlies." The last return of which I 

 have a note represents 6040 caught in May and June. 

 Many of these creatures, when examined, were found with 

 the remains of eight or ten smolts in their stomachs. 



The migration of Tweed salmon has been to some 

 extent investigated by the Commissioners. With the view 

 of ascertaining the changes of size and shape in future 

 stages of life, we for many years were in the practice of 

 catching fish of all kinds, and putting a silver wire into the 

 dorsal fin, with a special number stamped on it. When any 

 of these wired fish were caught, the wire was sent to our 

 Superintendent, with a description of the fish, by length and 

 weight, and of the place where caught. In this way we 

 had reported to us cases of Tweed salmon caught in the 

 Firth of Forth, on the coast of Aberdeen, and in the rivers 

 Don and Dee of that county. Along the coast of England 

 to the south of the Tweed, we had cases reported to us 

 from Holy Island, from the Tyne, from Shields, and even 

 from Yarmouth. This last case, on account of the distance 

 travelled, is especially interesting, the wire having been 

 fastened to a bull-trout caught in the Whitadder, a tribu- 

 tary of the Tweed, on the 2Qth of March, 1852, and the fish 

 having been caught in a net at Winterton, near Yarmouth, 

 on the 2nd of April ; it had travelled, therefore, nearly 300 

 miles in four days. Another fish, marked in the Whitadder 

 on loth March, 1880, was caught at Yarmouth on 5th May, 

 1880 (see Appendix B, page 184). 



