136 SHOOTING AND SALMON FISHING 



miles of water. Now, if one par in every two hundred grew 

 into a salmon, that alone would rob the river of six hundred 

 and twenty-five fish ; but there are fully (we believe a 

 great deal more) thirty-five miles of the Spey fished in this 

 abominably wasteful manner, so thus, if our calculation 

 is anything near correct, half a million par are annually killed, 

 which robs the river of over three thousand salmon each year. 

 Whether we are even approaching real fact in supposing it 

 takes two hundred par to make a salmon, there is no possible 

 means of ascertaining, but it is making a liberal allowance 

 for the chapter of accidents incidental to par life, for it must 

 not be forgotten they are sweet to salmon trout, herons, and 

 gulls, whilst in the sea they doubtlessly have other enemies we 

 know not of These boy anglers are of course not very 

 particular, and should they catch a smolt instead of a par, 

 all go into the basket alike ; and though there are plenty of 

 water bailiffs on the Spey, we believe we are correct in stating 

 there has never yet been a prosecution on Speyside for smolt 

 catching ! * 



Old fishermen tell us the par of the salmon have an orange- 

 coloured adipose fin, the par of the sea trout a yellow one, 

 and the par of the river trout a black one. We are not aware 

 if this has ever been ascertained to be correct ; it is a matter 

 the large fish hatcheries should be able to set at rest, but 

 certainly there are the three different coloured adipose fins. 



The Spey trouters claim their right on the ground that 

 it is a navigable river ; that every such river has a public 

 right of way, and that where such exists the public have the 

 right of fishing for trout. Now, the only navigation on the 

 Spey has been in the shape of rafts going down it, and' 

 whether such constitutes a navigable river is a question for 

 the lawyers. To all ordinary mortals the word "navigable" 

 implies shipping, or at least boats going both up and down 

 a river for the purposes of commerce, and all dictionaries we 

 * Recently matters have greatly improved in this respect. 



