CHAPTER XV 

 THE CONON DISTRICT 



RIVERS CONON, MEIG, BLACKWATER, AND ORRIN. 



ANGLING SEASON: January 26th to October 15th, 

 NETTING SEASON: February llth to August 26th. 



District Fishery Board sits in Dingwall. 



The Conon District is an example of a complex river system, 

 a district in which various rivers of not very different size 

 unite, as compared to the simple river system in which one 

 large river can be traced as distinctly the predominant water- 

 way, all other streams being subordinate tributaries to it. 

 In this instance a large loch, Loch Luichart, occupies a central 

 position, receiving water at its head from the river Bran and 

 from other streams, discharging its waters over a high and 

 beautiful waterfall, or rather over two falls close together 

 into what is thereafter known as the Conon River. On either 

 side of this central flow an important river also converges, on 

 the north, through Loch Garve, the Blackwater ; on the south 

 also from high deer country, the Meig. The Meig is not so 

 great a stream as the Blackwater, but the glen through which 

 it flows is called Strathconon, suggesting that the Meig is in 

 reality the upper section of the Conon. It is perhaps 

 unnecessary in a complex district like this to distinguish any 

 one stream as the head waters proper of the district, but if we 

 take the waterway which springs from furthest inland, and at 

 the same time that which seems to gather the greatest amount 

 of water, we must select the central line through Loch Luichart 

 and Loch Rosque. The Meig is 24 miles in length down 

 Strathconon to its junction with the main river. The distance 

 from the stream above Loch Rosque to the mouth of the Meig 

 is 27 miles. 



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