SALMON— SCOTCH FISHERIES. 127 



The next, rivers that arc nocessary to mention are two in luverness-shire,* the 

 Ness, which has a course of eight miles, in the time of Burt (1730), was said to ho 

 much infested by seals, but that they Avere good signs that the salmon were 

 running : he likewise observed that the judges and such other gentlemen " to 

 whom they do the honours of the Corporation by presenting them with their 

 freedom if it happens to be the salmon season. The entertainment is salmon 

 taken out of the cruives just by, and immediately boiled and set upon a bank 

 of turf, the seats the same, not unlike one of our country cock-pits; and during 



ultimately became subject. Although the Tay fisheries, as a whole, hatl not materially decreased 

 in money value, the upper net fisheries, situated immediately above the tide, diminished so 

 rapidly that their rental of £8000 sank to £(550, clearly showing that the effectiveness of the 

 fishing in tidal waters had reduced the period of a salmon's existence by many months, and his 

 road to destruction by many miles. 



About 1835 the Tay Na vitiation Act came into operation, one effect of which was the removal 

 of obstructions, and which increased the facility for working the net and-coble industry within 

 the tideway, and Eussel gave a return showing the captures of two of the largest jDroprietors 

 within this space, and these two were generally reckoned as possessing one-half of the entire 

 fisheries of the tideway. From 1825 to 1834, before the Navigation Act, the average annual 

 captures had been G715 salmon and 12,818 grilse, but from 1836 to 1845, after the Navigation 

 Act, it became increased to 8589 salmon and 13,335 grilse. But the fisheries next above the tideway 

 now suffered, and their takes decreased nearly 50 per cent. 



After the passing of the Home Brnmmond Act in 1828, in which it was decided to extend the 

 netting season from August 27th to September 15th, the produce of the river went on diminishing 

 until it had reached its lowest point in 1852, the rents since the passing of the Act having 

 gradually decreased from £14,574 in 1828 to £7973 in 1852. 



Legislation having thus decreased instead of having increased productiveness, the proprietors 

 about 1852 almost unanimously agreed among themselves to return to what for 400 years had 

 been the commencement of the close season for nets, or August 20th, and for rod fishing, 

 September 24th. Rents, which had gone down to £9530 in 1852, now rose as follows : — In 1853 

 to £8715 ; 1854, £9269 ; 1855 to £9977. But now one of the upper proprietors broke up the 

 compact, and the law of 1828 resumed its sway; and in 1856 the rental was £10,199; in 1857, 

 £10,772. So in 1858 the great majority of the proprietors united in petitioning Parliament for a 

 local Act, when the close time for the district was fixed by law from August 26th to February 4th, 

 and the rental went on increasing until it reached its culminating point in 1880, when it was 

 £22,518; in 1881 it dropped to £19,579; in 1882, £19,221 ; in 1883, £17,773; but in 1884 rose 

 again to £19,655, and in 1885, £20,437. 



In 1853 the Stonnontfield jjonds were erected by the then proprietors of salmon fisheries on the 

 Tay. They were situated about five miles above Perth, occupying, roughly speaking, two acres of 

 ground. Although now superseded by the Dupplin hatchery, they were useful in their time. The 

 boxes are still employed for hatching eggs and the ponds for rearing fish. The Bupplin hatchery 

 was instituted late in 1882 on the Earn, at Newmill, Dupplin Castle ; its capacity is estimated at 

 about 300,000 eggs. Here the fry are kept until about forty days old, when they are distributed 

 in the Tay and its tributaries. 



In 1864 Russel observed that the Tay furnished about 800,000 lb. weight of salmon annually. 

 Mr. Buist, in Bertram's Harvest of the Sea, 1865, p. Ill, observed that we hud the average 

 number of salmon and grilse taken (in the Tay) in each year is 70,000, but Bertram (p. 213) 

 observed " that in some seasons the number of fish taken from the mouth of the Isla down to the 

 sea has ranged from 70,000 to upwards of 100,000." In p. 6 of the Appendix to the 1871 lieport 

 on the Scotch Salmon Fisheries, the number annually caught in this river was given by one witness 

 at 100,300, and by another at 86,000. Large numbers of clean sahiion are captured in the early 

 months of the season in Loch Tay, where they ascend during December and January before the 

 netting begins. 



T. Proudfoot, in 1824, deposed to the fisheries in the Earn having decreased very much since 

 1820, due, he supposed, to two causes. " There are a great many stake fisheries up about 

 Montrose (increased about this time), which take a great many of the fish that would come into 

 the Tay, and what they do not take they put off with long leaders ; they are of such a length that 

 they put the fish past the Tay," thus affecting the Earn. He also complained that close time 

 was not properly observed. 



The South Esk rises in Loch Clova, and after a course of about forty miles, and a drainage 

 area of 245 square miles, it enters the German Ocean at Montrose. This is a good salmon river, 

 and between Brechin and the sea there are many gravelly shallows and deep pools. Unfortunately 

 it has about ten dams and weirs in its course, while a great amount of pollutions are poured into 

 it. The rental of the fishery in this river in 1867 was £1121 ; 1874, £1536 ; 1876, £1695 ; and 

 in 1884, £2475. In 1847 Stoddart gave that of the Rossie fishings at about £650, but stated they 

 had been let as high as £800 ; of Usan at £50 ; the station at Boddin Point at £400, and in the 

 Parish of Farnell at £250. 



The North Esk rises in the Grampians, and after a course of about thirty miles, and having a 

 drainage area of 288 square miles, enters the sea in the Bay of Montrose within five miles of the 

 entrance of the South Esk. There are five weirs in its course, one of which at Craigo dam is a 

 serious obstacle, and its recent history is very instructive. During the winter of 1881 a wide 



