TWEEDSIDE. 85 



it is easy to see who will gain it. 1 But there was 

 much less fishing long ago than there is now, in 

 all of our rivers. No doubt, if the Tweed is to 

 continue a river, yielding fruit, it must be pro- 

 tected on its banks and also in its beds, on its 

 banks from the destructive poacher, and in its 

 beds from every filth that is now run into it by 

 the manufacturer. This is, no doubt, provided 

 for in the last Acts ; but the Commissioners, so 

 far as I can see, have let the rent of fishings drop 

 so low, that they cannot afford to put a sufficient 

 staff to stop the former, nor employ surveyors to 

 detect the others. If all such matter could be 

 saved and I never could see much difficulty 

 in doing so what is now sent into the rivers to 

 taint the streams for fish, cattle, and man, might 

 be made the great source of profit to the land, by 

 the system of tanks look what can be done with 

 liquid manure. But I must now turn from the 

 Lowlands to the Highlands, and give you some 

 of my doings in Aberdeenshire. 



1 See the correspondence of Mr Irvine of Hawick, and 

 the Duke of Buccleuch, in the Scotsman of January 9, 

 1860. Next to keeping unpolluted streams for the drink 

 of man and beast, this is a most important subject for 

 the community. 



