178 THE SALMON RIVERS OF SCOTLAND 



one week, and about 440 have been got in a spring season. These 

 were great doings. It is a good sign of the river that the weights 

 appear to be increasing. I believe that with the increase of stock 

 resulting from the cessation of netting in the river Ness and 

 Loch Ness, the Garry will do still better. In February, 1909, Sir 

 Kay Muir (two rods), sublet from the Duke of Portland, had 74 fish, 

 averaging 17 Ib. 



The fall of the lower Garry deserves some mention. It is situated 

 at the outlet from Loch Garry in a deep rocky gorge. It has three 

 rises or breaks in its formation, and fish have to make two successive 

 springs in making the ascent. The second spring is a difficult one, 

 partly because it has to be made from broken water, but chiefly 

 because of an upward burst of water caused by a large submerged 

 rock upon which the water strikes, and which interferes materially 

 with the "take off" of the leaping fish. The total height of the 

 fall at low-water conditions is apparently about ten feet, and it is 

 only during low-water conditions that fish are able to ascend. Owing 

 to the narrowness of the gorge a slight rise in the loch is multiplied 

 considerably, and only a moderate rise of level is sufficient to trans- 

 form the fall into a huge surging rapid with force enough to wash 

 every fish oufc of the pool below, and to send white superaerated 

 water away down through the Otter Hole to the neck of the Little 

 Crooked Pool. When the winter conditions of water temperature 

 have yielded to the advance of summer, the Garry fish succeed in 

 making the ascent. They are still shapely athletic fellows, well 

 suited for the undoubted effort; yet it is more the question of tem- 

 perature than the nature of the obstacle which causes them to delay 

 till May before making the attempt. A less serious obstacle would 

 check their ascent in the same way. Garry fish are frequently 

 much marked by old wounds having healed up, and while the seals 

 of Inverness Firth may no doubt account for many of the marks, I 

 suspect that the rocks of the falls have also much to do with the 

 condition. I have noticed the same in the Moriston fish the few 

 I have had an opportunity of observing. Further, it is believed by 

 those who have much experience in stripping and artificially hatching 

 fish that violent struggles in the overcoming of obstacles have a 

 serious effect upon gravid females in materially reducing the per- 

 centage of eggs which will fertilise. 



Summer and autumn runs of fish do not, it is said, penetrate as 

 far as the Garry in this district, and therefore the Garry fish when 

 ascending the falls in question in May and June cannot be called 



