Report of Experiments on the Salmonidce of the Tweed. 375 



are " forests " with no trees whatever * A free forest, or 

 chase, is not necessarily a wood. In the last survey of 

 Cheviot, it is called, " that great waste, the Forest of 

 Cheviot " ; the same term which is employed in the early 

 grants (" Cheviot : magnum vastum vocat' forestam de 

 Chyvyot.") The trees were principally on the side fronting 

 Scotland, which is dry and favourable for the production of 

 oaks ; and the remains of these woods still exist between 

 Heathpool and Kirknewton. The Scots were accustomed to 

 slip over and steal the timber, to aid in constructing their 

 rude shielings. The prevalence of remains of British huts 

 all over the hills, shew that they never were densely wooded. 

 Such a population as they maintained could never have 

 obtained subsistence if entangled in woods. A native oak- 

 wood upon a height would form a thicket as impervious as a 

 bramble-brake, which no domestic animal could have pene- 

 trated. The Rev. W. Greenwell informs me that the Britons 

 were graziers rather than huntsmen ; and thus the deer and 

 the roe would have few charms for them. Few bones of deer 

 and roe are found in their funereal feasting-places, compared 

 with those of oxen, horses, and goats. 



The subject is not one that can be finished at one sitting. 

 I have endeavoured to take up some points of view left un- 

 touched by previous observers ; but I have purposely refrained 

 from others, for which the canvass is too narrow. 



Report of Experiments on the Salmonidce of the Tioeed, 

 1870, 1871, and 1872. Communicated by Mr George 

 Young. 



The natural history of the Salmon has been studied on the 

 river Tweed for a great many years ; and the facts which 

 have been brought to light have not been exceeded in any 

 part of the Kingdom. 



In order to begin at the beginning, it may be as well to 

 give some account of the " artificial breeding." When the 

 French naturalists first talked about raising fish from the 

 egg, as you would do with birds or fowls, it was received in 

 this country with great incredulity ; but as the newspapers 



* "An Englishman, new to the Highlands, passing through a northern deer 

 forest, remarked to his native companion that he was surprised to see no trees 

 there. ' Trees ! ' said the Highlander, with undisguised contempt, ' wha 

 ever heard tell o' trees in a forest ? ' Each was partly in the right ; the word 

 forest has different meanings btside the Severn and the Spey."— Sir Wm. 

 /Stirling • Maxwell' s Address, University of Edinburgh, 1872. 



