300 THE SALMON RIVERS OF SCOTLAND 



the river in spring. The action of the cruive dyke would be 

 first as a direct check to ascending fish, thus enabling the 

 angler to have a much longer time at his disposal to ply his art 

 on the congregated fish, and, secondly, to produce on the 

 whole a less violent current. Spring fish do not readily lie in 

 strong broken water as summer fish will often do. The total 

 gradient of the river is roughly about 1 in 85. I am inclined 

 to the view, therefore, that the cruive dyke resulted in the 

 better angling of the river, while it in no way reduced the 

 value of the upper water fishing in Lochs Clare and Coulin, to 

 which fish easily ascended in early summer, as they do still. 



If the additional scourings out of the river bed, consequent 

 upon the unrestricted floods from the loch, have reduced the 

 spawning beds of the Ewe itself, additional harm has been 

 done by the removal of the dyke, but I do not consider that fish 

 which formerly spawned in the Ewe would necessarily form the 

 habit of frequenting the Ewe and not penetrating to the upper 

 waters. 



July is generally considered the best month on the Ewe, but 

 I have heard the opinion expressed by one who has had 

 considerable experience of the river that there are even now 

 more fish to be got in spring than in summer. The late Sir 

 Kenneth Mackenzie's best day is reported to have been 10 

 grilse presumably in June or July and Mr. Dixon, who 

 was tenant of Inveran for a number of years, had a day of six 

 grilse. Sir Humphry Davy, in his Salmonia, speaks of the 

 Ewe as a certainty for sport in summer, and adds that when 

 the cruive existed further up the river than at time of his 

 writing (1813) the Ewe was a good second to the Brora. The 

 statement about the cruive does not seem to me to be accurate 

 if my information as to the history of that structure is correct. 



Mr. Dixon, who at Inveran had two days a week on the river, 

 the four others going with Pool House, reported to the Fishery 

 Board for Scotland that in his 17 years' tenancy the take of 

 fish averaged about 40 in the season. On looking over the 

 bridge at Poolewe one day in July 1908, 1 saw more than that 

 number swimming about in the tidal pool, most of them were 

 probably grilse, and a large number of sea- trout were also in 

 waiting, leaping from time to time all over the pool, as their 

 habit is. The river was dead low, and ascent was well-nigh 



