234 
Proceedings of the Royal Society 
progeny of parr and orange-fins were found along with them, all of 
the fish being in fine condition — the kelts being well mended. On 
25 th July of the same year they were, on the occasion of the pond 
being cleaned, again weighed and measured ; they now averaged 15 
inches each. They were again returned to the pond, and retained 
there till the 2 2d of May 1879, when thirty of them were marked 
with silver wires and' returned to their native Tweed. 
It will thus be seen that sixty-six large fish, whose united length 
is 80 feet, along with multitudes of parr and orange-fins, were 
cribbed, cabined, and confined for five years in a pond no larger 
than an ordinary dining-room, and remained in health during that 
period without exhibiting any signs of fungus disease, and this 
although the pond is situated within a few hundred yards of the 
Tweed — an affected river. 
There can be no comparison, I submit, between a salmon-pool in 
a river — where the full current of the stream flowing through the 
pool provides for a constant change of water — with a confined pond 
fed only by a small pipe of water and crowded with fish; and yet, 
in the latter, no disease or death, other than that of kelts after 
spawning, has ever been detected.* 
* Since this reference to the Carham pond fish was read to the Society, it 
has been stated by Inspector Johnston of the Berwickshire Police that several 
fish had been found dead in the pond, which, in his opinion, had died of 
fungus disease. Those deaths, of which there can be no doubt, took place 
between 11th February and 3d May 1879, embracing a period of eighty-two 
days, during which five fish had been found dead in the pond by Mrs Robson, 
the gamekeeper’s wife, who fed them. These fish were shown to Inspector 
Johnston, who apparently paid official visits to the pond, and from the appear- 
ance of the fish he concluded they had died of fungus disease. I do not accept 
Mr Johnston’s opinion on this point. He was well aware that I was engaged 
in a scientific investigation of the disease ; indeed he had, by order of Mr List, 
chief-constable, caught in the Tweed and forwarded to me several salmon to 
aid me in my research. It is singular then, that, knowing the interest I took in 
the pond fish, he was silent, and did not at the time report upon the disease, 
which, according to his version, had existed in the pond for eighty-two days, 
a period of sufficient length for the fungus to have destroyed the fish, both 
root and branch ; also, according to his own statement, no one saw the dead 
fish, with the exception of himself and Mrs Robson, and probably Mr Robson, 
the gamekeeper ; and, consequently, there is no scientific evidence that the 
cause of death was Saprolegnia ferax; and, to quote the words used by Mr List 
in a letter to me of 21st Juue, “ if Saprolegnia ferax had been in the pond, 
it must have been seen on the fish on the 22d May, when w’e saw every one of 
them.” Taking those facts into consideration, I adhere to my statement that 
