THE SPEAN 349 



THE RIVER SPEAN 



The proposals just referred to, if and when carried out, will 

 practically finish the salmon fishing of the Spean. I may still 

 refer briefly, however, to the existing features of the river, 

 as the immense engineering works proposed will not be 

 completed for several years. 



The river flows out of Loch Laggan on the confines of 

 Badenoch and Rannoch, a sheet of water 7 miles long and 

 819 feet above the sea. The divide for the east and west coast 

 drainage occurs a short distance beyond the far end of Loch 

 Laggan, and is curiously shown in the course of the river 

 Pattack, which drains into this end of the loch. The Pattack 

 rises from a small loch of the same name, lying south-east of 

 Loch Laggan, and runs almost due north as if it would certainly 

 join the Mashie, a high tributary of the Spey. When only 

 about a mile from the Mashie it is abruptly turned off in an 

 acute angle backwards to the head of Loch Laggan. The 

 Spean, when it reaches Tulloch, on the West Highland Railway, 

 is joined by the water from Loch Treig, and now passes along 

 the floor of an ancient lake site, with its well-defined terraces. 



All this water is, however, beyond the reach of salmon, and, 

 I fear, is likely to remain so. Leaving the gravelly streams of 

 the old lake bed, it cuts its way through a deep, rocky barrier, 

 and shortly afterwards plunges over the formidable falls of 

 Inverlaer. Then comes a gorge, after which another beautiful 

 stretch of open, gravelly water succeeds. But the same sort 

 of rocky barrier again occurs, after cutting through which the 

 plunge over Mounessie Fall is made. Those falls mark the 

 furthest point to which Spean salmon can possibly ascend ; 

 and I am informed by the river watchers that fish are never 

 seen jumping at the falls. Possibly the tremendous weight of 

 water which plunges unchecked into the pool below, a drop of 

 about 23 feet, is too great to induce fish to do so. The gorge 

 below gradually opens out again, and some inviting pools 

 occur, with a ledgy break here and there, before Spean Bridge 

 is reached. 



The water from Mounessie to Spean Bridge forms the two 

 top beats of the Abinger fishings. Beat 1 is down to the burn 



