284 MISTLETOE UPON THE OAK 



small mercy when they reach the best spawning grounds, 

 where the leister, the gaff, and the ' snatching ' hook are 

 plied almost with impunity. When the pollution poured 

 from scores of woollen mills is taken into account also, 

 and that no effort is made to replenish the waters by 

 artificial hatching, the wonder is, not that salmon are 

 more scarce than of old, but that all these adverse con- 

 ditions have not prevailed to exterminate the breed alto- 

 gether. In the Teviot, the most important tributary of 

 the Tweed, and, in the golden age of Scrope, a famous 

 salmon river, a very near approach to extermination 

 seems to have been attained, seeing that the whole 

 result of the past angling season consisted of one 

 salmon and one grilse ! The Royal Commission re- 

 ported nearly two years ago, and no action has been 

 taken by the legislature; but indeed the question 

 remains, What is the use of making new laws if the 

 existing ones are allowed to be set at nought ? 



LXVII 



Elsewhere I have ventured to express doubts about 



Mistletoe the existence in Britain of mistletoe at the 



upon tli6 



oak present day upon the oak. These doubts 



arose from repeated failure to obtain specific evidence 

 of a single instance. Moreover, I have searched through 

 thousands of oak trees in such districts as Surrey and 

 the Loire valley, where oaks abound, and where mistletoe 

 grows abundantly upon poplars, apples, limes, robinia, 

 and hawthorn, and have never been lucky enough to 



