KYLE OF SUTHERLAND 217 



fishing. Through this part of the Kyle the waters of the 

 neighbouring Carron pass, and also the waters of the other 

 rivers of the district which lie to the westward. It is a sort of 

 bottle-neck to the upper estuary, and the key to the whole dis- 

 trict so far as the ascent of salmon to fresh waters is concerned. 



From Bonar Bridge the upper estuary continues for four 

 miles westward past the junction of the Shin. The high railway 

 viaduct crosses to Invershin Station, about a mile below the 

 junction. After passing the mouth of the Shin the flat tidal 

 channel still continues away inland for about seven miles to the 

 ford between Oykell Lodge and Rosehall ; but this stretch is 

 usually considered as the lowest part of the Oykell, although in 

 certain maps the Kyle, as low as Bonar Bridge, is marked as 

 the mouth of the Oykell. The total length of the tidal waters 

 in the Kyle and Firth is, therefore, about 27 miles. The 

 separation between the counties of Sutherland and Ross is 

 the line of the river Oykell and of the Kyle. The Shin and 

 Cassley are, therefore, Sutherland rivers ; the Carron is in Ross- 

 shire, while the left bank of the Oykell is in the former and 

 the right bank in the latter. 



The district has ever been famous for its salmon, and this 

 can be sufficiently understood when the great extent of beauti- 

 ful spawning ground is realised. With the exception of the 

 river Shin, which is rocky in almost all its short course, the 

 rivers exhibit great stretches of spawning ground, while the 

 numerous smaller feeders, which are of no great moment as 

 angling streams, are of great importance as spawning areas, 

 such streams, for instance, as the burns around Loch Merkland 

 away at the head of Loch Shin, the Einig, which enters the 

 Oykell from the south near Oykell Bridge, and, to a less degree, 

 the Tirry, which enters Loch Shin from the north near Larig. 

 In those lonely hill regions the water is pure from the wells of 

 nature, and man cannot destroy very many fish, either by fair 

 means or foul, for man is a rather scarce creature where there 

 are no villages and the country is either under deer or under 



If one regards the Kyle District broadly one notices that in 

 conformity to the physical features of the glens at East Suther- 

 land and Ross, the river courses, as one follows them downwards, 

 present long flattish stretches of considerable uniformity, 



