of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 
45 
Mr Irving thinks that the whammel or drift nets such as are used in the 
Solway are ' bound to exterminate the fish in time, if they are permitted 
to continue fishing in the narrow channel of the estuary of the 
rivers.' 
He states that he brought the unsatisfactory and illegal position of the 
Newbie dam, fish-pass, mill-lade, &c., and the evils to the fisheries arising 
therefrom, under the notice of the Chief Constable and the Secretary to 
the Annan District Board in May last, bat that no steps have as yet been 
taken to enforce the provisions of the Bye-law (Schedule G) which regu- 
lates such matters. 
Printed papers with regard to the state of the Annan and the Solway 
in 1890, which have been forwarded to me by Mr Bell Irving, will be 
found in the Notes to this Report. 
Two gentlemen in the Forth District have kindly sent me answers. Forth District, 
namely. Sir James Maitland, the proprietor of the unrivalled piscicultural ^^I^^J^j^^g 
establishment at Howietoun, near Stirling, and the well-known naturalist, Maitland amf^ 
Mr Harvie-Brown, author of a Fauna of Sutherland and Caithness, and Mr Harvie- 
other works. Under the head of the queries connected with the salmon Brown, 
disease. Sir James writes : — 
I think the Fishery Board for Scotland should be given full powers, to in- 
quire, experiment, make and repeal bye-laws, and control generally, in the 
^nhlic interest, all District Boards. 
The hatchery at Howietoun is principally for trout — about six millions 
of trout ova annually. With regard to the ' Wild Birds Protection Act, 
1880,' Sir James writes : — 
I find the' herring-gull and the lesser black-headed gull veiy destructive to 
trout. I recommend that these be legally destroyed on fresh-water ponds and 
lakes. 
Mr Harvie-Brown's answers relate to the river Carron, an important 
tributary of the Forth, where, as appears from the first Statistical Account 
of Scotland, there was excellent fishing in the last century. That, how- 
ever, is now a thing of the past. ' Salmon ' — says Mr Brown — ' have 
utterly disappeared from River Carron, caused by shipping interests at 
Grangemouth and Carron, as regards salmon, and entirely caused by gross 
and ever-increasing pollution below Denny as regards trout — whilst salmon 
and migratory trout will not face the pollution.' 
Illegal fishing for trout is prevalent. Liming River Bonny takes place 
every summer. No watchers and no prosecutions. Too many proprietors 
uninterested in trout and interested in the business of polluters, who are 
their tenants. For some five or six years, agreement was carried out 
under common law, and the whole thing seemed in a fair way of success, 
but ultimately broke down. County Councils should take the matter 
up. The dams on the Carron are not worked in terms of the bye-law. 
There are no fish-passes. 
Mr Brown suggests, with regard to the salmon disease, that it arises 
from over-preservation of old fish and autumn fish ; over -netting of spring 
and summer fish ; and rapid rise and fall of water. Concerning the • 
* Wild Birds Protection iVct,' he thinks that it should not be repealed or 
modified without further and minute examination of the habits of the 
birds protected. 
* P'or ail account of the dams and lades mentioned iu Mr Bell Irvinfj's answers to 
the printed (luories, as they were in 1883, see my Second Annual Report to tlie Board, 
pages 88-90, 
