200 THE SMELT 



time. Sparling-fishing, once a remunerative industry 

 in the Annan, had been brought to an end through in- 

 discriminate netting during the spawning season, not- 

 withstanding the difficulty of conveying these highly 

 perishable fish to market in hot weather. 



In the Cree, another of the Solway rivers frequented 

 by sparlings, the members of an angling association 

 which rented the salmon-fishing became aware of the 

 destruction wrought by the small-meshed nets of the 

 sparling - fishers among the smolts of salmon and 

 salmon-trout descending to the sea in April and May, 

 this being the very period when the sparlings seek the 

 top of the tide to spawn. Consequently, gravid smelts 

 and migrating smolts were hauled out indiscriminately, 

 and however much care conscientious fishermen (and 

 it is rumoured that all net fishermen are not con- 

 scientious) might exert in returning the smolts to the 

 water, it was unavoidable that thousands of them 

 should be destroyed for no purpose whatever. The 

 angling lessees, therefore, having acquired a lease of the 

 net fishings also, instituted a close-time extending from 

 1st April to 1st September, with the cordial concurrence 

 of the fishermen, who had experienced the difficulty 

 attending the transport of sparlings in the summer 

 months. 



I have spoken above of the sparling as a valuable 

 food fish. In support of that may be quoted a note 

 which I have of the returns from the sparling-fishing in 

 the Cree when the angling association had control 

 thereof. In the seven months from 1st September 

 1900 to 31st March 1901, the four fishermen employed 



