THE DEVERON 143 



dyke, did not unhappily show itself strongly. Fish did not 

 ascend to the upper waters in any marked numbers. The 

 fish that did spawn were not apparently sufficiently numerous 

 to resuscitate the stock. Year after year improvement was 

 looked for but did not come, and, after waiting eight years, a 

 further step was resolved upon. 



Netting was at that time carried on in the river from the 

 mouth up to the bridge of Alvah, a distance of 3 miles. 

 In the early part of the season this extent of water was fished 

 by one boat's crew alone, one crew by day and another crew 

 by night. From July onwards this amount of netting was 

 doubled, two crews fished by day and two by night. Outside 

 the river mouth, in Banff Bay, nets were set within 400 yards, 

 this being the limit of the estuary, and those nets were " out- 

 rigged " so as to project well out into the bay. 



Another factor most adverse to the fishing interests of the 

 river had also developed in the peculiar formation of gravel 

 banks at the river mouth. Banff Bay is open to the north, 

 and receives the full force of the sea, which frequently sweeps 

 in from the Moray Firth, piling up huge beaches of gravel, and, 

 even in moderate weather, rolling the finer stones about to a 

 surprising extent. Nowhere, I think, have I seen such perfectly 

 round stones as in Banff Bay, and at the mouth of the Spey 

 further to the west. The river Deveron entering the bay in a 

 direction opposite to that of the waves brings about a combat 

 of forces, and according as the sea is stormy and the river low, 

 or the river in flood and the sea calm, so one force or the other 

 temporarily gains the mastery, and arranges the gravel accord- 

 ingly. A current in the bay sets, however, in a westerly 

 direction, and so, with the on-shore action of the waves, a 

 lateral action is also imparted, as is also noticeable in Spey 

 Bay. The result of this is that the gravel is constantly being 

 pushed along in a westerly direction, and that the river is at 

 its mouth also deflected in this direction. A considerable 

 change may result from a storm at any time, but the common 

 appearance is a high unbroken beach of gravel right across the 

 natural position of the river mouth, a tidal lagoon of greater 

 or less extent at the back or landward side of this, and a con- 

 tracted and shallow outlet for the fresh water as far to the west 

 as the limits of the bay will allow. For some years previous 



