EARLINESS OF THE NESS 



61 



Setting aside this impediment, and cceteris paribus, 

 I believe the season of all rivers depends upon the 

 temperature of their waters during the winter and 

 spring months. Thus the Ness is the forwardest 

 river in Scotland, which the following table of 

 monthly captures produced by Mr. Alexander 

 Fraser 1 will prove. 



STATEMENT OF THE NUMBER OF SALMON KILLED IN THE NESS 

 IN TWELVE YEARS. 



Now it must be observed that the Ness never 

 freezes, even with the most intense frost. In the 

 year 1807, when the thermometer at Inverness 

 was from 23 to 30 and even 40 degrees below the 

 freezing point, it made no impression upon the 

 river or the lake. " The Ness (says Mr. Fraser) 



which is quite as early as the Ness, depends for its volume almost 

 entirely on melted snow, and so do the best rivers in Norway. ED. 

 1 Evidence before Select Committee in 1825, p. 42. 



