CHAPTER IX 

 RIVER DEVERON 



ANGLING SEASON: llth February to 31st October. 

 NETTING SEASON : llth February to 26th August. 



District Fishery Board sits in Banff. 



The Deveron rises from a high mountain ridge on the western 

 borders of Aberdeenshire, from which streams flow south-east 

 into the Don, and north-west into the Spey. The head stream 

 of the Deveron proper the Alt Deveron as the Highland 

 source of this lowland river is called passes through the 

 high and bleak district of the Cabrach soon after its birth. 

 The water is dignified by the title of " river " after it is joined 

 by the Blackwater at a place called Dalriach, but the volume 

 is still insignificant. Leaving the Cabrach, it flows north with 

 an easterly trend for 17 miles to Huntly, below which it receives 

 its two chief tributaries, the Bogie from the south, and, 

 a few miles further on, the Isla from the north-west. 

 These two tributaries are of equal length, each being about 

 16 miles, and in these waters, unfortunately, a good deal of 

 pollution occurs. Huntly drains into the Bogie, and Keith 

 into the Isla, the latter being perhaps the worse, since not 

 only does domestic sewage enter, but waste products from a 

 distillery and from Kynoch's chemical factory are added. 



The Deveron is not polluted by distilleries to the same extent 

 as the Spey is or was, but there are seven in the upper waters 

 estimated as capable of distilling 6,000 bushels a week during 

 the five or six months of what is called the distilling season, 

 which unhappily embraces the spawning season. I shall deal 

 with the recent and successful methods of treating distillery 

 refuse when describing the Spey. 



The Deveron, after receiving the Isla, enters upon a series 



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