166 SoLWAY Nature Notes. 



Mr Armlstead replied that neither had he thought there 

 was any doubt about it ; but the reply which the fishermen at 

 the mouth of the Nith got from the Fishery Board was that 

 they had no evidence that porpoises were destructive to 

 salmon. • 



Mr R. Wallace suggested that, while parts of the Solway 

 where you have shelving rocks and more or less horizontal 

 strata might afford a resting-place for shellfish, this was not 

 the case where you had perpendicular rocks jutting out into 

 the Firth, as at Balmae and other places. 



Mr Armistead said his remarks applied to the Solway 

 east of Douglas Hall; not to the Firth further west, where 

 you had more of deep sea conditions. At Balcary, for 

 example, and Isle of Heston, shellfish could not live on the 

 rocks because of the force of the waves in storm. 



The Chairman said, when living at Carsethorn, he fre- 

 quently observed that in wet seasons flat fish were not only 

 less plentiful, but not so good. He was quite certain that 

 porpoises do eat salmon. He had heard it all his life, and he 

 had frequently seen marks on salmon caused by porpoises, 

 r.nd which could not be caused by any other creature that 

 frequents the Solway so far as he was aware — pieces bitten 

 out of the side of the salmon. It was quite well known to 

 the fishermen of the Solway that the porpoises do catch 

 salmon ; and the sooner the Fishery Board got to know this 

 the better. He thought the Solway was particularly sus- 

 ceptible of improvement of its fisheries. Great stretches were 

 left bare at low tide, at least at spring tides, and these were 

 surely capable of being developed in the same way as the 

 French had done in the culture of mussels and oysters. A 

 few years ago there was a mussel bed discovered at Carse- 

 thorn. Hundreds of pounds worth of mussels were taken 

 from that bed and sent to the English market. They brought 

 a good deal of money into the district, and gave employment 

 to a good many men, some belonging to the district, others 

 who came from Creetown and Lancashire. Of course the 

 great difficulty in the Solway was the shifting of the sands ; 

 but these might be prevented by artificial means from en- 

 croaching on certain areas. In his earliest days at Souther- 



