152 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



early and late rivers, I may remark that his observation 

 does not lead me to the same conclusion as his. 



" If," says he, " I find a river which has no great reservoirs at 

 its sources, and if it is a river which offers sufficient inducements to 

 fish to ascend ; and if, notwithstanding these inducements, it is a 

 late river, or a river which only stocks up in the late season, then I 

 would be inclined to pronounce that it ought to be an earlier river, 

 and would be so if it were properly treated. I would unhesitatingly 

 pronounce that it is over-fished by bag-nets at the coast in spring, 

 and had an insufficient estuary free of nets ; that it was probably 

 over-fished by other nets in the river itself; and that cruives and 

 obstructions aided in its destruction." 



Now, I will instance two rivers in which a salmon is 

 never taken before July, where none of these detrimental 

 conditions exist, and where the spawners are carefully and 

 effectively protected. 



The first is the Luce, flowing into Luce Bay. This has 

 been kept as a river exclusively for angling, to my knowledge, 

 for more than thirty years. It possesses no great reservoir 

 at its source, but its channel is well suited for salmon and 

 sea-trout ; the nets that used to fish the estuary were removed, 

 and in the whole of Luce Bay, the largest bay in Scotland, 

 there are but two bag-nets. The rest were all removed by 

 the Solway Commissioners in 1867. Sea-trout begin to 

 run early in June, fine fellows up to 6 Ibs. weight, followed 

 by an extraordinary number of others from I to 3 Ibs. I 

 have once heard of a salmon being taken with the fly in 

 June, but in most seasons none are caught until the Lammas 

 floods. There are generally plenty after that : I once killed 

 nine in two consecutive days, and last year Mr. James Walker 

 took one of 38 Ibs. in September. 



The other river I shall mention is the Amhuinn Aodh 

 or Inverie river, debouching in Loch Nevis in Inverness- 

 shire, after a short course of four miles from the inland lake 

 Dulochan. There are no bag-nets in Loch Nevis, neither 

 has netting been permitted in the river for forty years past. 

 The sea -trout and salmon runs correspond in date and 

 character with those of the Luce, save that the salmon in 

 the Highland river are not of equal average weight to those 

 of the Lowland stream. 



