32 THE SALMON RIVERS OF SCOTLAND 



number of fish were caught, and especially a vast number of grilse, 

 the actual number of spawning fish must have been much greater than 

 it is now. We are always quite dependent on the number of spawning 

 fish. But conditions of capture plus other contributing conditions 

 did reduce the stock. 



After the introduction of the 1857 and 1859 Tweed Acts, the 

 conditions of the river have remained more constant than previously, 

 but sweep netting is still carried on to such an extent as to make 

 the weekly close time inoperative except in times of flood. The 

 stock reduced from its old abundance seems to be fairly maintained 

 at its lower level. There does not, at any rate, appear to be any 

 great falling off in the total produce of the net fisheries during the 

 last forty years, so far as the figures available go to show. What 

 seems to be happening is that the greatest number of fish enter the 

 river at a later date than formerly. 



Between 1842 and 1856, the third week of July was the time, as 

 the returns show, when the greatest catches of the season were 

 made. From 1860 to 1894, the best catches were made in the last 

 week of August. In more recent reports, indications are not absent 

 that the two last weeks of the season (which ends on 13th 

 September), are more important than they used to be. " The Autumn 

 Net Fishing of 1907 was steady till the end of the season," runs the 

 Tweed Commissioners' Eeport and the newspaper accounts of the 

 Annual Meeting of the Berwick Salmon Fisheries Co.), " the last 

 few weeks especially giving excellent results." This is, no doubt, 

 satisfactory for those shareholders who in that year got their 

 15 per cent., but in the general interests of the river I venture to 

 think the result unfortunate. 



Netting in the river is at present carried on, and has from time 

 immemorial been carried on, from Berwick to Coldstream, a distance 

 of 16 miles. About 62 nets are used at 39 stations. No part 

 of the water which can be netted is unworked. A weekly close 

 time from 6 o'clock on Saturday evening to 6 o'clock on Monday 

 morning exists, but as already stated, the length of river netted is 

 so great that no material benefit is secured to the spawning stock of 

 fish in the river. The fish which pass through the lowest fishings 

 on Sunday are caught by the upper nets on Monday. There is 

 simply a transference of profit once a week. When the river is in 

 flood some fish get through the gauntlet of nets, but under ordinary 

 conditions no great head of fish available for spawning purposes 

 reach water above Kelso while the nets are at work. The fish 



