6 



Appendices to Eighteenth Annual Report 



Curriehill, after the full enquiry by the Court of Session in 1879 into 

 the use of paidle nets, the Nith nets can in no way be excepted 

 from the ruling that fixed engines of this description are illegal inasmuch 

 as they are formed in a precisely similar way to recognised salmon nets, 

 are fished in the same manner as salmon nets, and catch salmon as well 

 as white fish. Indeed, in the report of the Commission on Crown 

 Rights (p. ix.) it is stated that the paidle nets more especially considered 

 by the Commissioners — being those situated some distance to the east 

 of the natural mouth of the river Nith — owing to the narrowness of the 

 channel, must inevitably catch salmon. It is to be regretted if the salmon 

 fisheries, on account of their major right over the white-fish fisheries, 

 interfere with the livelihood of those who say that they cannot, in the 

 Solway, catch white fish except by means of such stake nets as are 

 identified with the capture of salmon ; but the information on the subject 

 elicited through the Law Courts seems to allow of no opinion but that the 

 paidle-net fishermen live by the proceeds of fisheries other than white-fish 

 fisheries. Extensive nets, with pockets roofed at a height of six feet, 

 seem to be unnecessarily expensive for the capture of comparatively 

 valueless fish like flounders, and the practice of setting such nets from 

 the line set down as marking the confines of the river Nith to a point 

 four miles up the tidal mouth of that river, as ascertained at the time of 

 my visit, seems to me to be a bold repetition of an offence already most 

 clearly defined. My reason for thus dealing with the matter is that I 

 am of opinion, after viewing the array of fixed engines on the flat tidal 

 banks of the river, that very serious damage is done by these fixed 

 engines to the salmon fisheries of the district, and that the District 

 Board should give the matter their careful attention. 



In the Answers to Queries addressed to the Nith Board, and appended 

 to this Heport (p. 71), will be found a reference to a case in which two 

 men have been convicted, since the above was written, for fishing by 

 means of stake nets without permission in the estuary of the Nith. 



(b) The Difficulty of Securing the Ascent of Fish owing to 

 Polluted Water, more especially in the Neighbourhood of 

 Dumfries. 



The Parliamentary Burgh of Dumfries has a population of 17,821. 

 The river Nith receives the sewage of the town, in addition to the sewage 

 of adjacent villages and of the Boyal Crichton Asylum. 



A very deleterious pollution of the river also results from the establish- 

 ment of a dye work, two large tweed mills, and two hosiery mills. On 

 the tributary of Crawick Water, above Sanquhar, there is also a blanket 

 manufactory, from which I observed a sulphur -coloured fluid being given 

 off. In the town of Dumfries the pollutions which more especially 

 attracted my attention were those from the dye work (Messrs. Short- 

 ridge) and the two tweed mills (Messrs. Charter & Spence and Messrs. 

 Scott). On the date of my inspection of the Dumfries section of the 

 water, a light brown fluid was flowing from the dye work, which is 

 situated above Dumfries Bridge, in the non-tidal portion of the river. 

 I was informed that the colour of the bye-product is subject to great 

 variation. Below Dumfries cauld, which separates the tidal from the 

 non-tidal .water, as it does the upper and lower proprietors, Messrs. 

 Charter & Spence's mills were giving off, from a drain pipe which 

 appeared to have a diameter of 2 feet, a fluid of a strong French-grey 

 colour, and, apparently from a smaller pipe at the side of the other, a 

 fluid of a dark blue colour. About 150 yards down the river the grey 

 colour was still very evident, and here, from the opposite or left bank, a 



