of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



93 



Dee (Solway). 



An action in the Court of Session is pending between the Salmon Fishery 

 Proprietors and the Galloway Engineering Co., in view of works which the 

 latter have erected at Tongland on the lower river. 



Lochy. 



In this district works are in contemplation for the carrying of water 

 into the Leven District, in order to supply power at the Kinlochleven 

 works of the British Aluminium Co. 



Forth. 



The netting results in the tidal waters between Stirling and Alloa have 

 kindly been supplied to me since 1907, and I have already had occasion to 

 make reference to the serious decline in the salmon fisheries which has 

 set in. 



This decline will be appreciated from the following triennial averages of 

 the catch. 



1907-9 1910-12 1913-15 . 1916-17 



4252 4092 2347 758 



The last figure represents only two years. 



In a period of only eleven years, the decline is extraordinarily rapid. 

 The nettings are now carried on at a loss, and, after the present season, may 

 be expected to cease. 



The action of pollutions coupled with the great abstraction of pure 

 water to Glasgow have now practically annihilated the fishings. With 

 the diminished supply of water, the river is now unable to clear itself of 

 the complex and toxic discharges. 



Salmon and sea trout are killed in large numbers during the summer 

 months, especially when spring tides occur to stir up the foul deposits 

 which settle on the river bed. 



It was in 1913 that proposals were made to take additional water to 

 Glasgow from Lochs Voil and Doine, and in referring to that matter and 

 to the pollutions in the Thirty-third Annual Report (p. 253) and Twenty- 

 second Annual Report (p. 248) I stated that one of the most serious eventu- 

 alities, in my opinion, was that if this further abstraction of water took 

 place the mortality which then occurred in dry summers amongst fish 

 below Stirling, would become more or less constant. I fear that even 

 without the abstraction of the additional water, but by the steady increase 

 of pollutions, the condition has, already become more or less constant, and 

 that my gloomy prognostications about the annihilation of the local salmon 

 fisheries have now been fulfilled to all intents and purposes. A small stock 

 of fish no doubt is still able to penetrate the polluted zone, but the numbers 

 produced are not sufficient for the upkeep of a commercial fishery. And I 

 venture to repeat that the impurities are capable of treatment, and that it 

 might still be possible to resuscitate the fisheries. 



Artificial Hatching. 



In many quarters, a decline of a stock of fish is regarded simply as a 

 difficulty which can be got over by the increase of artificial hatching. On 

 the Pacific Coast of North America, for instance, the enormous quantities 



