134 SHOOTING AND SALMON FISHING 



but so close is the netting that we do not think the united 

 spring salmon fishings of the whole five let for three hundred 

 pounds ! Now, if the same length of spring fishing could be 

 added to the Dee, the Helmsdale, the Thurso, or the Garry 

 of Loch Oich, they would certainly, at the most moderate 

 calculation, realise five thousand pounds ! 



The Dee is one of the best spring salmon rivers in Scot- 

 land, which has been brought about by the wisdom of the 

 upper proprietors, who, joining together, have bought the lower 

 nets off the river. We can remember when first staying with 

 our old friend, that very good angler, the late Mr. Thomas 

 G. Simpson, at Blackball Castle on the Dee, that the nets 

 used to work right up to Banchory Bridge, which is some 

 twenty-two miles from the mouth, while between that and the 

 railway bridge at Aberdeen some dozen others were hard at 

 work. These, by degrees, have all been bought up, and now 

 no nets exist on the Dee above the suspension bridge of the 

 granite city. 



It is strange a proceeding so practical and so profitable has 

 not had more imitators, as the result has been highly beneficial 

 to the upper proprietors, either in the shape of increased sport 

 or big rents. Only fancy the Tweed, the Tay, and the Spey 

 all WELL stocked with spring fish, so that, instead of going to 

 these rivers in the autumn and paying large sums for the privi- 

 lege of hauling out numbers of red gravid fish, one could 

 be sure of similar sport in the spring time with the strong, 

 wild, desperate-fighting bars of silver fresh from the sea! 

 What prices such fisheries would bring to the lucky owners, 

 and what fun they would give to those able to pay for them ! 

 Of all Scotch rivers we consider the Spey is the grandest for 

 the angler, but in spite of that it is the one of all others that 

 has gone most hopelessly to the bad, though sad to say there 

 are plenty but a little way behind it in the race for annihilation. 

 In addition to excessive netting and the rough treatment of 

 kelts returning to the sea, which is telling a tale on all rivers 



