CHAPTEK IX. 



RIVER DEVERON. 



ANGLING SEASON : llth February to 31st October. 

 NETTING SEASON : llth February to 26th August. 



District Fishery Board sits in Banff. Clerk, James Morrison, Esq., Solicitor, Banff. 



THE Deveron rises from a high mountain ridge on the western 

 borders of Aberdeenshire, from which streams flow south-east into 

 the Don, and north-west into the Spey. The head stream of the 

 Deveron proper the Alt Deveron as the Highland source of this 

 lowland river is called passes through the high and bleak district 

 of the Cabrach soon after its birth. The water is dignified by the 

 title of " river " after it is joined by the Black water at a place called 

 Dalriach, but the volume is still insignificant. Leaving the Cabrach, 

 it flows north with an easterly trend for 17 miles to Huntly, below 

 which it receives its two chief tributaries, the Bogie from the south, 

 and, a few miles further on, the Isla from the north-west. These 

 two tributaries are of equal length, each being about 16 miles, and 

 in these waters, unfortunately, a good deal of pollution occurs. 

 Huntly drains into the Bogie, and Keith into the Isla, the latter 

 being perhaps the worse, since not only does domestic sewage enter, 

 but waste products from a distillery and from Kynoch's chemical 

 factory are added. 



The Deveron is not polluted by distilleries to the same extent as 

 the Spey is or was, but there are seven in the upper waters estimated 

 as capable of distilling 6,000 bushels a week during the five or six 

 months of what is called the distilling season, which unhappily 

 embraces the spawning season. I shall deal with the recent and 

 successful methods of treating distillery refuse when describing the 

 Spey. 



The Deveron, after receiving the Isla, enters upon a series of 

 wide curves as it works its way into the lower parts of Banffshire. 



