of the Fishery Board for Scotland.. 
23 
into any salmon river, you must now, under this falsely-named amend- 
ment of the Act of 1868, not only prove this, but prove in addition that 
it was put in 1 to an extent injurious to any salmon fishery ,' which opens 
up an endless field for litigation, and makes it almost hopeless for District 
Boards, when opposed by rich manufacturers, to procure a conviction for 
the pollution of rivers. The remedy for this unsatisfactory state of 
matters is, it humbly seems to me, to enact a clause something like the 
following in any future Salmon Fishery Act : — ' Section 13, of the recited 
1 Act 25 and 26 Vict. cap. 97, and section 16 of the recited Act 31 and 
* 32 Vict. cap. 123, are hereby repealed, and it is hereby enacted that 
1 from and after the passing of this Act, each District Board, within its own 
' district, shall have and possess the same powers of prosecution for the 
' prevention and abatement of pollutions in rivers and waters as are at 
' present competent to individual riparian owners in such district.' 
Possibly County Councils may be able to deal with the increasing evil of 
the pollution of rivers ; and if so, their action will be most salutary and 
beneficial, especially in the numerous Fishery Districts in Scotland where 
there are no District Boards. 
The following precognitions of two tacksmen of salmon fishings, taken 
by the Qlerk to the Nith District Board, will show the terribly dele- 
terious effects of pollutions and whammel-nets on the fishings in the Nith 
between Dumfries Cauld and the sea. 
Dumfries, 14th August 1891. 
Charles Turner, Fishmonger, Dumfries, aged 41, residing in St Michael 
Street there, says : — 
I and my brother George Turner, Turner's Terrace, Maxwelltown, are 
tacksmen of the salmon fishings in the River Nith, from the Cauld at Dumfries 
to the Granite Stone on Netherwood Merse. We have held these fishings for 
the last four years. 
Our first year was a bad one. 
During the second year we made what enabled us to recoup the loss on the 
first. 
Last year rather more than paid expenses. 
This year we have realized £75, to meet £250, with only three weeks of the 
season to run. 
In my opinion the fishings are gradually becoming worthless, and I attribute 
this to two causes (First), the whammel-nets in the Solway and estuary, and 
(Second), the pollution of the river by the effluents from the mills and the 
town sewerage. 
I must admit that in a wet season the fishing is better than in a dry, and 
that the present has been a very dry season, but in a dry summer, w T hen the 
river is low, the sewage and poisonous effluents have greater effect on the 
small body of water. 
When the water is low, I consider the pollution the sole cause of deteriora- 
tion. Scarcely a fish will run up. 
During six weeks of this season we stopped fishing altogether, with the 
exception of an occasional trial without our full strength of men, just to see if 
any fish were running. We generally made these trials as soon after six o'clock 
on a Monday morning as possible, so as to get in before the refuse was dis- 
charged from the mills, and we generally got a few trout. 
When the fish have been up the river I have seen them at the ford at the 
New Quay making back to the sea on Monday mornings after meeting the 
refuse from the mills. 
The dyes are plainly seen in the water. They are seen of various colours at 
different times — black, violet, drab, and at Castle Dykes T have seen several 
colours at one time. During the six weeks I have mentioned, when the water 
was low, I have seen it black from bank to bank — so black that a piece of white 
paper could not be seen a foot deep, and between the sewage and mill effluents 
the smell is so bad that I could compare the river to nothing but a stinking 
canal. 
