102 THE SALMON RIVERS OF SCOTLAND 



wind, while at the back of these sand hills the land is flat for 

 fully half a mile inland. Half way between Montrose and the 

 North Esk the southern boundary of the district occurs, the 

 northern boundary being 9 or 10 miles up the coast at 

 Gourdon. There are fully 120 nets fished in this stretch of 

 coast, and they are chiefly concentrated in St. Cyrus Bay and 

 stretch just north of the river mouth. The nets are much 

 outrigged one on end of the other, so that one may see two or 

 it may be three fly nets set on poles sunk in the shelving sandy 

 beach, one beyond the other, and, outside of these, one or it 

 may be two bag nets, i.e. five or six nets in a line end to end. 

 Fly nets and bag nets, it may be explained, are precisely alike 

 in principle, but the former are adapted for fishing smooth and 

 shallow beaches between high and low water mark, while the 

 bag nets are floated to moorings in deeper water. It has been 

 estimated by one arguing in favour of the positions of those 

 nets that the ranges of netting are not closer to each other than 

 500 yards. 



The shore frontage where these nets are set is of great value, 

 although in recent times there has been a slight depreciation. 

 In 1884 the rental for nets outside the North Esk estuary was 

 4,795. In 1894 it was 3,636, and in succeeding years after 

 that 3,954, 3,872, 3,827, 3,776, 3,636, and in 1900 3,753. 

 The rental for the whole district now stands at about 6,400. 

 The average number of boxes of salmon sent from Rockhall 

 Fishery in forty-six years is 195. 



The estuary is drawn as an arc of a circle of 400 yards radius 

 from the centre of the river at low tide equinoctial spring tides, 

 and owing to the sandy nature of the shore this estuary is 

 liable to variation through the shifting of the river mouth. A 

 large lagoon exists behind the dunes just north of the present 

 river mouth, and having a separate entrance to the sea 

 practically a mile away from the present river mouth. This 

 was at one time the course of the river, and some curious stories 

 are told of how it ceased to be the mouth. It is sufficient here 

 to say, however, that the North Esk now runs straight into the 

 sea from what is called the North Water Bridge. I have no 

 doubt the straight mouth is much better in the general interests 

 of the river than the old mouth. 



Four miles and a half up from the mouth Marykirk Bridge 



