THE THURSO 249 



The stock of salmon must at one time have been such as 

 we never see nowadays. There is a record catch for one haul 

 of the net which has more than once been already given, 1 but 

 which will bear repeating ; no account of the Thurso would be 

 complete without it. This catch was vouched for in the 

 written statement of three eye-witnesses on 23rd August, 1792, 

 and runs as follows : "Mr. George Paterson, now Bailie of 

 Thurso ; George Swanson, shoemaker there ; and Duncan 

 Finlayson, senior fisher there, do hereby certify and declare 

 that upon the 23rd day of July, old style, we think in the year 

 1743 or 1744, there were caught at one haul in the Cruive Pool, 

 upon the water above the town of -Thurso, 2,560 salmon. 

 These fish were caught by a large net beginning the sweep at 

 the Cruive, and coming down the stream to a stone at the lower 

 end of the pool. The net was carried down the water by 

 eighteen or twenty men with long poles in their hands keeping 

 down the ground rope, and the fish were afterwards taken 

 ashore by dozens in a smaller net. Each man got a fish and 

 some whisky for his trouble. We further personally certify 

 and declare that we were personally present when these fish 

 were caught. Signed : George Paterson, George Swanson, 

 Duncan D. F. Finlayson." This miraculous draught of fishes, 

 occurring as it did in summer, was in all probability owing to 

 the presence of the cruive dyke now removed preventing 

 the natural distribution of fish in the river. Salmon had 

 been able to run in from the sea, but for some time had been 

 unable to surmount the cruive dyke, and so congregated in 

 great numbers below the obstruction. That their presence 

 there in unusual numbers had been noted, and that a special 

 effort was made to secure a great catch, seems suggested by the 

 unusual methods adopted by the large number of extra hands 

 employed. One is inclined to surmise that there were few 

 fish to be found in the upper waters in the autumn after this 

 big catch. But it is surprising how the stock must have kept 

 up, since for many years after this date the river as well as 

 Loch More were netted, and kelts seem to have been 



1 Third Annual Report Fishery Board for Scotland, p. 122, and Augus- 

 tus Grimble, Salmon Rivers of Scotland, i., p. 239. Reference to this 

 take is made in Sir John Sinclair's Statistical Account of Scotland, vol. 

 xx., p. 522; 



