24 THE FRESH-WATER TROUT. 



upon us as having fallen into " the vulgar or rather 

 urbane error, that manufactories injured the fishing." 

 It would be worse than useless to argue the point 

 with a man living upon the banks of Gala Water. 

 If Gala Water from Galashiels to Tweed, which, to 

 use the words of - Mr. Stoddart, " is an unseemly 

 ditch, full of the blackest and most noxious dyes," 

 and which the Border Advertiser must see and 

 smell daily, will not convince him, no argument will. 

 Why, the " Man of Boss," who has propounded the 

 rather startling theory that grilse 'are not young 

 salmon, and whose theory BlackwoocKs Magazine has 

 settled for ever, labours under no such hallucination 

 as our friend the Advertiser. That manufactories, 

 however, do injure the fishing, all England proves ; 

 there, the refuse from them and the drainage of 

 towns are conveyed into the streams, and the result 

 is . that salmon are not, and trout are fast going. 

 Even in Scotland several streams have suffered 

 severely from these causes, and they are daily 

 increasing. The following graphic, and we fear 

 prophetic, foreshadowing of the fate of Tweed, is 

 taken from the Quarterly Revietu for January 1857, 

 and is written by an angler no less celebrated for 

 wielding the rod than the pen : 



" Look at what the Tweed is now in contrast 

 with what will be its look and smell at that not 

 distant then. See her and hers rolling along, beauti- 

 ful and beautifying, through regions where every ruin 

 is history, and every glen is song, gathering her 



