THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH. 175 



Mr. Stoddart finds the stock of fry very scanty 

 in his own river, the Tweed, and he proposes some- 

 thing like artificial breeding in it to increase the 

 stock, which appears as necessary to be done in the 

 border rivers as it is unnecessary in the abundantly 

 stocked Tay. He writes : — 



" The opening of Tweed on the 15th of Feb- 

 ruary, as is well known, has of late years been sig- 

 nalized or rather rendered notorious, by an immense 

 slaughter at many of the netting stations not only 

 of kelts, but of baggits and kippers to boot. Last 

 year, as I have been given to understand, scores of 

 ripe spawners were captured during the opening week 

 below Tweedmill and in the vicinity of Twizel. I 

 have known to the amount of 80 she-fish, all large 

 and primed with ova, having been taken in a single 

 day, from the Tweed, on a similar occasion, and there 

 is every reason to believe that the termination of the 

 present fence time will be followed up, as usual, by 

 extensive massacres of unspawned salmon and grilses. 

 Now, what I propose is this, that the proprietors or 

 parties holding salmon fishings on Tweed should in- 

 struct competent persons to attend the various net- 

 ting" stations at the opening of the season, for the 

 purpose of expressing, collecting, and inoculating, 

 when opportunity offers, this great annual wastage of 

 spawn — for, the purpose also (not of stowing it away 

 in wooden boxes, over which an artificial run of water 

 shall be directed), but of committing it to ' ridds' 

 formed with the shovel, hoe, or plough in the bed of 



