THE TWEED 27 



however, and a source of much vexation to the angler. So greatly 

 did it multiply in the Coquet that an attempt to reduce the number 

 was made at one time, by removing restrictions for its capture during 

 the spawning season, the object being to increase salmon at the 

 expense of the migratory trout. The round-tail sea-trout is a robust 

 variety, however, and the attempt was abandoned. In the returns 

 of the Tweed commercial fisheries, which have been published in blue 

 books, the trout table seems to maintain its level more steadily than 

 either the salmon or the grilse columns. 



Below the mouth of the Whitadder, the Tweed is not of great use 

 as an angling river. It is the scene of constant netting in the season, 

 and is within tide reach. Within a distance of two miles is Berwick, 

 and thereafter at the end of the pier we see the last of the river. 

 Before the railway viaduct was built the view up Tweed from the 

 old many arched road bridge must have been very fine. I have read 

 somewhere that it gave the traveller an adequate conception of the 

 importance of the river, but was apt to give an undue sense of the 

 beauties of the town of Berwick. It is a little difficult to understand 

 what this means if it is not uncomplimentary to Berwick. To one 

 whose chief interest is the river, however, it might be said that if 

 Berwick were as grand a place as London, or even as Edinburgh, 

 the beauties of the river would still hold first place. Yet venerable 

 old Berwick deserves everyone's regard. What a place of battles it 

 was ! One can still walk round the remains of its worn battlements 

 and realise in some faint measure the factors which created as tough 

 a set of fighters as were to be found in a long day's march in the 

 fighting times. I believe this characteristic has not yet wholly 

 departed from the lieges of the Burgh, or from the folk just north 

 and south of them. 



The Tweed has no natural estuary, but an equivalent has been 

 created by statute in what is termed " the mouth " of the river. 

 The limits of this mouth have been extended beyond the area as at 

 first described. By 22 and 23 Viet. c. 70, par. 4 (the Tweed Act of 

 1859), " the limits of the mouth or entrance of the river Tweed shall 

 be deemed to extend, and shall extend, from the pier called Queen 

 Elizabeth's pier along the sea-coast, on the south side of the said 

 pier, to a point at high water mark, on the said sea-coast, on the 

 south side, distant seven miles measured in a straight line from the 

 lighthouse on the said pier, and along the sea-coast on the north side 

 of the said pier, to the point of boundary at high water mark, 

 between the borough of Berwick-on-Tweed and the kingdom of 



