KYLE OF SUTHERLAND 219 



rentals, etc. Unfortunately, the loss on the first season's 

 fishing was heavy. The syndicate was compelled to retreat 

 from the standard upon which they started. In 1908, although 

 the 60 hours' weekly slap was continued, the nets were put 

 on again above the Bridge. Unhappily it was again a poor 

 season. In spite, however, of a recent attempt to the contrary, 

 nets do not go on till 1st April. 



All operations along this line have shown most conclusively 

 that the policy of reducing netting where fish specially 

 congregate before ascending to their spawning grounds, is 

 thoroughly sound. The Kyle is in this district the spot 

 where regulative treatment is most vital, and as far as 

 possible keen fishing should here be avoided. The results of 

 limiting the netting here have been most beneficial in the 

 experience of the syndicate. It is, of course, easy for one whose 

 pocket is not affected by the matter to give advice, yet the 

 advice is prompted purely in the general interests of the district 

 as a whole. Let a proportion of every run of fish past the nets, 

 is the golden rule. 



The district was also rendered famous in the " thirties " by 

 the investigations of Young, of Invershin, who came to the 

 locality in 1828, and exercised the netting at the junction of 

 the Shin and Oykell. Young died in 1865, but he was the 

 pioneer of salmon marking in Scotland, and although entirely 

 wrong in many of his conclusions, since he held that smolts 

 went to the sea when a year old, and came back as grilse the 

 same season, he did much by writing on the results of his 

 observations to draw attention to the interest surrounding 

 the migratory habits of the salmon. Especially did he draw 

 the attention of a good fighter in Mackenzie of Dundonnell, 

 who published a book, 1 which makes good reading if only by 

 reason of its incisive combativeness. Great was the scorn of 

 Dundonnell for the arguments of his opponent. Young's son, 

 now getting up in years, still occupies the farm at Invershin, 

 but, as already explained, no netting is now carried on except 

 at Bonar Bridge, if we exclude the bag-net fishing in the sea 

 outside the estuary. 



1 View of the Salmon Fishery of Scotland, Wm. Blackwood & Son, 

 1860. 



