138 THE SALMON RIVERS OF SCOTLAND 



bank would be formed which would at any rate shed its superfluous 

 stones at a much slower rate than this gravel is moved along the 

 beach at present; and such stones as were washed over would be 

 not too numerous to be carried out by the action of the river. It is, 

 I think, idle to suggest a structure to resist the action of the waves 

 here. It is wiser and infinitely less expensive to use the action of 

 the waves to construct the desired bank in a natural way. I believe 

 the North Esk mouth has never shifted since the simple barrier 

 to the south of it was formed many many years ago, and previous to 

 that there was a lagoon larger than the one referred to here, with the 

 mouth of the river half a mile away in the direction of St. Cyrus. 



So far as appears, the removal of the cruive dyke resulted chiefly 

 in the limited number of early running fish getting to the upper 

 waters before the netting came on. The year after the dyke was 

 removed a few such fish were taken by rod several miles up the 

 river. With a reduced stock, however, and a bad river mouth, the 

 number of very early fish was not great. With the dyke still acting 

 as a check to ascending fish all through the year, the pool below the 

 dyke was the chief netting station, and I believe as many as 3000 

 fish were at times taken from it in a season. Practically no fish 

 got further up till nets were off and the cruive- boxes opened. 



When the cruive pool was no longer in existence, the nets were 

 chiefly used lower down, where the water was fairly quiet within 

 and at the top of tide-reach. That the nets still continued to take 

 a fairly heavy toll seems borne out by the few returns published, 

 which I have at command. In 1902 they are reported to have 

 taken 1500 fish, and in 1903 as many as 2005 fish, being 582 salmon 

 and 1423 grilse. On the whole, however, the rods were beginning 

 to do better. The total catch for the river was in 



1900 - - 1113 



1901 - - 824 



1902 - - 950 



1903 - - 1235 



I am not able to give totals after 1903, and it may be they would 

 not look as well as some of the above. The weather conditions 

 generally were perhaps adverse in the last season or two, and the 

 last of the netting may have been extra severe; but it is at all 

 events cheering to notice that, with regard to the number of fish 

 seen spawning, the returns published in the Annual Reports of the 

 Fishery Board for Scotland speak to a marked increase. The report 

 for 1907, for instance, says the numbers of breeding fish were " far 

 above the average." Corresponding with this, also, I am aware that 

 large numbers of kelts were caught in the spring of 1908 by those 



