THE NITH 407 



means, as I have, will agree that the Nith cannot be regarded as 

 purified till the trade waste is also treated. At the same time I 

 may add that there seems no adequate reason why such a large 

 establishment as the Crichton Asylum should escape treating its 

 sewage. 



The overnetting is not now so serious as it was. Two methods 

 of netting called whammelling, i.e. drift net fishing for salmon, and 

 paedle net fishing, have been largely put down by the action of the 

 local proprietors. The paedle net is a small stake net set on the 

 sandy flats off the river mouth, so that when the tide ebbs the net 

 is left dry. It is in all essentials a salmon fixed net, but is of a 

 smaller size. There are leaders and cross arms and a "head" or 

 enclosed chamber which constitutes the trap. Attached to this 

 there is very frequently a cylindrical " coop " of netting with an 

 inverted mouth, after the fashion of a large lobster pot. This is the 

 innermost recess of the trap. The whole structure is rather elaborate 

 and must necessarily be somewhat costly, yet the owners of such 

 nets tell one they are meant to catch flounders. The flounders of 

 the Solway, I am willing to concede, may be very fine fellows of their 

 kind, but my experience of flounders is that they live on the bottom, 

 and that it is not necessary, is indeed extravagantly expensive, to 

 fish for them with nets of several apartments roofed in six feet from 

 the ground. 



I recollect setting up a stand camera to take a nice photograph of 

 some paedle nets one day in the rain, at dead low water, about half- 

 .a-mile out on the mud. I had just completed my operations when 

 an innocent-looking fisherman, with his trousers rolled up to the 

 knees and an empty sack under his arms, came trotting out in my 

 direction. He evidently wished to speak but did not know how to 

 begin. I helped him out therefore by asking if these were his nets. 

 No, they weren't his nets. 



" What do you catch in these curious nets ? " I asked. 



The inevitable answer came at once, " Oh, jist a few flounders." 



" The fish in this net over here are not flounders." 



I may explain that he kept at a most respectful distance during 

 our conversation. 



" No ! What's in that net ? " 



" Sea-trout," I answered. 



His conversation seemed quite exhausted then. He tucked his 

 sack a little tighter under his arm and immediately trotted off to a 

 range of nets still further out. But the sequel of the story was 



