of the Fishery Board for Scotland, 
63 
Were the Solway and Annan cleared of poachers, and were existing 
abuses remedied, there would soon be ten fish in the river where there is 
only one now ; and proprietors, who naturally take but little interest in the 
Annan in its present state, would then have the satisfaction, even if they 
did not fish themselves, of being in a position to offer good sport to their 
friends. 
The spring salmon described by local and other newspapers as being 
caught in the Annan in considerable numbers during the months of March, 
April, and May, are nothing more or less than well-mended kelts, which 
put on a silvery appearance, though thin and lanky ; and owing to the 
hedge of nets about the mouth of the river, and the shortness of the 
weekly close-time, only a few odd fish manage to get up before the 10th 
of September ; consequently the fishing is reduced to about two months 
in the autumn, during which time this season I do not believe one hundred 
fish were caught with rod and line throughout the whole length of the 
Annan. 
J. BELL-IRVING. 
Mount-Annan, 2nd December 1890. 
NOTE VI. 
STATEMENT WITH EEGARD TO THE SOLWAY, BY 
MR J. BELL-IRVING, MOUNT-ANNAN. 
The Solway is at present infested by poachers, who, until the close of 
the netting season, are the regular whammel or drift-net fishers licensed 
by the Eden Fishery Board to fish on the English side of the Firth with 
nets not exceeding 300 yards in length. 
There are about forty boats engaged in this trade, and these make 
Annan Waterfoot their headquarters, fishing both the English and Scotch 
sides indiscriminately with from 300 up to 800 yards of net, and this, not 
only in the open season, but so long as the autumn run of salmon con- 
tinues. So emboldened have these men become by their own numbers 
and the weakness of the force of water-bailiffs opposed to them, that they 
openly defy the law, and boast of the great quantities of salmon which 
they illegally take. 
With such a length of net as is made use of, they are enabled to sweep 
the whole Channel of the Firth, and thus take the great bulk of the 
fish making for the Annan, Esk, and Eden, and even the Nith lower 
down, so that it is easy to foresee that if the evil is not speedily put a 
stop to, salmon fishing in these rivers will go from bad to worse, while 
other rivers, such as the Dee and Derwent, must also suffer. 
Poaching was carried on wholesale during last September and October, 
and it was so vigorously prosecuted the previous autumn, that the water- 
bailiffs affirm that not anything like the usual number of fish entered the 
Solway this season, whilst in the river sport was never so poor. 
Notwithstanding this, however, salmon were selling in and about 
Annan during the close season at as low as 4d. per lb., although some of 
the larger catches were despatched to other markets by dealers and others 
in Annan without a question being raised. 
The whammel-net licences having been greatly increased in numbers of 
late years, poaching during the close season has doubtless been resorted to, 
to make up for the smaller individual takes during the open season ; and 
