208 APPLICATION. 



transfer his operations to the foot of the pool, and 

 he may capture as many more, showing either that 

 the trout cannot detect the presence of roe a hundred 

 yards above them, or that they cannot be troubled 

 to go so far for it ; and as they take it as readily 

 in April as November, there is no reason why they 

 should not go as far to seek it in the one month as 

 the other. Another point which the framers of 

 the next bill upon the salmon-fisheries should keep 

 prominently in view is the protection of the young 

 salmon or parr. During the months of April and 

 May, when they are changing into smelts and migrat- 

 ing to the sea, killing them is an offence liable to 

 heavy fines ; but for the rest of the season, the poor 

 silly parr is at the mercy of every boy who can muster 

 twopence to buy gut and hooks ; and thousands of 

 them are slaughtered in Tweed every day during 

 summer, and not by boys only, but by grown men 

 pretending to be anglers. If such have not sufficient 

 skill to capture trout, we hope the law will step in 

 to prevent them massacring the innocents in this 

 manner.* 



In the first chapter of this volume it was men- 

 tioned that there were not three days from May till 



* Since we wrote the above passage both roe-fishing and 

 killing parr have been made illegal ;. but as we believe both 

 are still carried on, if not so openly, nearly as destructively 

 as ever, we have allowed the passage to stand, and hope all 

 honest anglers will set their faces against such a disgraceful 

 infringement, not only of the law, but of fair fishing, and 

 not bring discredit upon the fair fame of the craft. 



