GRAYLING AND THE SWALE .

Sir,—In the space of your columns for the last week or two I have noticed a little bit of fuss about the grayling and the swale. The swale at the present time is only affected by the hush below Gunnerside beck, there being eight or nine miles of good trout water west of the above-mentioned place where the pollution first enters the river. But the question is, Could grayling live in such surging waters? as I can prove that minnows cannot, having tried them several times myself. The only kind of fish in the Upper Swale are trout, eels, loaches, and bullheads. The first, I understand, were very numerous before the cowl net was introduced ; but since that murderous system of dragging the quiet pools during floods has been practised, the trout have gradually diminished both in size and quantity. What size is the legal mesh of a troutnet? These cowl net workers procure the smallest they can meet with, and in no instance have any of them been interfered with. The proprietors say they have a perfect right to kill the fish any way they like, even by poison, if they confine it to their own waters. Is this so?—I am, &c., R. Kearton