THE SALMON DISEASE. 
153 
owners and the Commissioners does not afford even the small con- 
solation that the fish die a natural death, for they hold, and are 
ready to affirm on oath, that the vile pollutions of the woollen mills 
and towns on Tweedside cause all the evil. The controversy has 
continued for years, but now some facts have turned up in Cumber- 
land and Westmoreland which must carry a verdict of acquittal for 
the millowners. A short time ago large numbers of dead salmon 
were found in the Kent, a river which is as pure as Thirlemere 
itself. No pollution, wilful or accidental, could be traced, and the 
authorities had to confess their ignorance of the cause of death, 
coming to the illogical conclusion that it arose from exhaustion 
after spawning, oblivious apparently that this has happened every 
year since Kent was a river, and the deaths have been heard of 
only now. From a statement in the “Times” it appears that 
things piscatorial are much worse in the Eden, which flows through 
a beautiful country guiltless of the offences of factories. 
The “Carlisle Journal” says : — “ Large numbers of kelts — that 
is, fish that have spawned — are found in pools and floating down 
the stream dead and dying. The appearance of the disease is that 
of a white fungus. This affects the head of the fish, then it attacks 
the tail, and subsequently the fins. In some instances the fungus 
grows so plentifully that the fish appears to be swimming about 
with a white nightcap over its head. Salmon smolts and trout are 
also affected by the disease. 
“ An unusual number of kelts have remained in the Eden this 
year, and many of them have died ; so many, in fact, that the 
water bailiffs have been employed in picking them out of the water 
and burying them.” 
This disease is by no means confined to salmon and young salmon 
(smolts), but trout, eels, lampreys, flounders, minnows, and other 
fish, are equally affected. A watcher on the Esk informed Mr. 
Brookter that the disease nearly always starts at the nose, and 
gradually spreads over the head ; the fish, he affirmed, would come 
to a still part of the river, with only a small patch on the nose, 
and in two or three days the patch would have extended over the 
head, and at the same time have appeared on the base of the fins 
and tail. The disease is said to be generally confined to the parts 
mentioned, unless the fish has had a bruise or scar anywhere so as 
to remore the scales. From an examination of actual specimens, 
however, it seems proved that the disease by no means always com- 
mences at the head. The accompanying illustration of the smolt’s 
head (fig. 104) shows the external appearance of the disease and 
its effects ; the scales appear to be covered with a fine white cottony 
bloom, which at length blinds the fish, envelopes the gills, or even 
entirely closes the gills and mouth. To give an idea of the rela- 
tive size of the fungus in comparison with a fish, a single scale of 
a salmon, with the fungus in situ, is here engraved (fig. 106), 
enlarged ten diameters. With a very low power of the micro- 
scope the fungus will be seen to consist of a dense mass of matted 
