of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



139 



selves unable to combat the very serious difficulty in any very efficient 

 way, although one or two are giving much attention to the matter. 



Special reference has previously been made to this difficulty in the 

 river Forth, where, owing to the great abstraction of water to Glasgow, 

 pollutions are not now diluted as formerly. Mr Murray, who nets the 

 conjoint stations of the estuary, has reported as follows : — " It is difficult 

 for me to describe the destruction without running the risk of being 

 accused of exaggeration. An ominous feature was the early date in 

 summer when the deaths began, a number of trout and smolts being 

 destroyed during a big stream tide in the end of May. With cooler 

 weather and a little fresh water in the river, the fish held on without at 

 least serious loss until the end of July, when, with a big tide and dry 

 hot weather, the water again became incapable of supporting fish life. 

 As at that time the river was well stocked, the mortality was great, 

 practically every fish being destroyed. ... It is difficult to even 

 estimate the number of fish destroyed. One hundred and eighty-six 

 were buried on one occasion by the bailiffs in the extent of a few 

 hundred yards ; many hundreds lay and rotted on the shores and sand- 

 banks, while more were hauled out in a dying condition by people who 

 frequented the river banks for that purpose. ... At a very conservative 

 estimate I should say at least 1000 fish were destroyed, and this takes 

 into no consideration the large number of immature fish that suffered 

 the same fate." 



The condition in this district is now so serious as to be critical. If it 

 continues, the probability is that all summer fish will be destroyed and 

 the net fisheries ruined. It is, in fact, only the very high price of 

 salmon in recent years which makes it still profitable to carry on the 

 netting. The supply of food is greatly reduced. 



One recalls with melancholy interest that Richard Franck in his 

 Northern Memoirs 1821, writes, with regard to the salmon in the Forth, 

 that "the price of a salmon formerly exceeded the value of sixpence 

 sterling, which I suppose no Englishman will grudge, nor think it un- 

 reasonable to give at any time." 



With regard to the cure of this most serious canker of pollution, I 

 may recall that the valuable results of the Sewage Disposal Commission 

 have not yet materialised in any legislative shape. I dealt in my last 

 report with the groups into which the commissioners arranged the 

 various classes of trade wastes, and with the question of the "standard 

 of purity." I need not again touch upon these matters here. But no 

 general report upon salmon fisheries can in future be without some 

 reference to this most serious trouble. Many sources of pollution re- 

 ceived great accretion during the period of the war, and during that 

 period it was inevitable that pollutions should be allowed to proceed 

 unabated, but in the subsequent period of reconstruction there is much 

 avoidable harm which might be checked. 



Apart from the view that waste products are a mark of unscientific 

 manufacture, that many substances formerly regarded as useless have 

 been turned, under modern chemical treatment, to useful account, there 

 is the undoubted argument that one class of industry is being allowed 

 to destroy another. Manufacturers producing the toxic waste products 

 referred to are allowed, for their own convenience, to pour them into 

 our salmon rivers to the detriment and destruction of the salmon fisheries. 

 Those whose fortunes are bound up with the industry of salmon netting 

 have practically no weapon of defence, nor have the authorities, who 

 are supposed to protect the general interests of salmon fisheries, includ- 

 ing the all-important upkeep of stock in our rivers, any powers worthy 

 of mention. 



