142 THE SALMON RIVERS OF SCOTLAND 



south-west of the Findhorn's source, on the high ground to the east 

 of Loch Oich, near where the Roy flows south to the Spean. 



Lonely little Loch Spey here catches the rivulets and unites them 

 into the little stream which has so many miles before it as it flows 

 away to the east and north. A mere tarn is Loch Spey, and hard 

 to get to, although the Highland Eailway passes within some 16 

 miles of it. An ill-defined track goes through the pass beyond the 

 loch to the head of the Tarff, and so down into the great glen, as it 

 trends north to Fort Augustus. 



The Spey for some miles below its loch of origin is gravelly and 

 well suited for spawning purposes. Before the Truim joins it, how- 

 ever, in the deep wooded defile, one may see on the left from the 

 railway track between Dalwhinnie and Newtonmore a stretch of still 

 water has supervened. The Truim is also a fine spawning stream of 

 crystal water, but in the present state of the stock of fish I am not 

 aware that very many reach these head waters. They are the 

 natural places for the spawning of the earliest spring fish. Down 

 to Newtonmore there is again some fine water. The growing district 

 of Newtonmore sends in summer time a most noticeable and undesir- 

 able supply of sewage to the river by a long pipe carried in a mound 

 across the local golf course. With plenty of room to adopt a simple 

 system of land filtration, it is a pity that quite an effort should be 

 made to reach the river with the direct sewage outfall. 



Below Newtoninore a stretch of sluggish water exists which, with 

 one break opposite Kingussie, terminates near Kincraig in Loch Insh, 

 which, as has already been said, is in reality a widening or spreading 

 out of the river over a flat part of the strath. This loch is 

 commonly described as about a mile long and half a mile broad, but 

 it is often extremely difficult to say where the loch ends and where 

 the river channel is, for in times of flood the water gets over the 

 retaining banks of the river above the loch proper and covers a great 

 extent of flat meadow land. It is not an unfamiliar sight in passing 

 by train between Kingussie and Kincraig (the old name of which 

 was Boat of Inch) to see the water up to the top of the fence at the 

 side of the railway embankment, and to find it encroaching also on 

 the haughs beyond the railway. Yet in winter, when the water is 

 frozen, the track of the river out in the centre of the loch can 

 frequently be made out more certainly than at any other time. It 

 has often seemed to me that the making of hay on those Loch Insh 

 meadows must be peculiarly heartbreaking. I have seen haycocks 

 floating about in autumn, and once the water gets beyond the proper 



