THE DEVERON 135 



Its general character is varied and very similar to the upper section 

 of the river Don. Like that river also it is famous as a trouting 

 stream, and many beautiful brown trout are taken from it annually. 

 The river at times glides pleasantly through upland pastoral land, 

 at times through rich woods, now over sparkling shingle, or breaks 

 more roughly through rocky glades. Often it hurries along merrily, 

 and yet often it pauses mid meadows, or by some overhanging woods. 

 The course from Huntly to Turriff is 22 miles, and for the most part 

 in an easterly direction. At Turriff, the river is turned abruptly at 

 a sharp angle to the north. For a little it seems to hesitate which 

 way to direct its further course, but at Forglen it settles down to 

 its northerly run for the Moray Firth at Banff, a distance of about 

 11 miles. Allowing 4 miles for the hill burns above the Cabrach, 

 the total mileage is thus 54, and in the main the character of the 

 river, as a salmon stream, is first-rate, and without doubt it should 

 by nature hold plenty of fish at all seasons of the year. 



I say " should hold," because the Deveron has passed through a 

 very considerable period of depression, and is not yet recovered. 

 It has paid the penalty of having been overnetted and fished by 

 cruives ; it has suffered from bad silting up at the mouth, and has 

 been polluted to some extent, as already described. By degrees the 

 fishing declined, till at last the proprietors rose up in conjoint 

 action, and decided to pay the price necessary to secure the 

 control of their fishings, so that resuscitation might take the place 

 of depletion. It is slow work, and it also has been very expensive 

 work, but only perseverance is now needed to bring the river back 

 to a well-stocked and valuable condition. 



The first step was the removal of the cruives, which from time 

 immemorial had been fished by the Duke of Fife. This was accom- 

 plished in February, 1898. The cruives were situated about two 

 miles from the river mouth. At the date mentioned, the dyke 

 across the river was entirely cleared away. Now it is very difficult 

 to exactly identify the place where the dyke stood. The pool above 

 was, of course, at once lowered, and the site of the dyke is now 

 a rippling stream. 



The improvement looked for, after the removal of the cruive dyke, 

 did not unhappily show itself strongly. Fish did not ascend to the 

 upper waters in any marked numbers. The fish that did spawn 

 were not apparently sufficiently numerous to resuscitate the stock. 

 Year after year improvement was looked for but did not come, and, 

 after waiting eight years, a further step was resolved upon. 



