THE ORRIN 203 



barely three and a half are open to salmon. Like the Meig, it 

 rises away in the Strathconon deer forest, and has a long course 

 down a high valley. Just before reaching Fairburn it emerges 

 from the mountain region, and immediately below Fairburn it 

 tumbles over the curious Orrin Falls, and so across the flat plain to 

 the Conon. The rocks of the fall are conglomerate like the rocks 

 of the Beauly at Kilmorack. The drop is in part perpendicular, 

 and about 15 feet is the total height. It would not be difficult to 

 let fish up to the long stretches of the upper Orrin. The increase of 

 breeding ground would be very great, and the benefit to the general 

 stock would in time be felt in proportion. The sole right of fishing 

 goes with Fairburn Estate, and I understand that the reason why 

 nothing has ever been done to let fish up the falls is because the 

 Fall Pool is netted. I recollect being informed some years ago that 

 about 1200 fish had been netted here by the end of May. It has 

 been argued before now that it is no one's business but the pro- 

 prietor's whether the fish are netted or allowed up the fall and 

 kept for rod fishing. In a sense no doubt this is perfectly true, but 

 there is also, surely, the general interest of the district to consider 

 also, and I would not venture to suggest that the upper proprietors 

 of the Conon district failed in this respect. It seems to me that 

 what is wanted most of all is a beginning in the way of less netting 

 at the mouth, and the opening up of the cruives, when it will 

 immediately be a sound policy for upper proprietors to deal with all 

 natural obstructions in the semicircle of rivers which go to form the 

 Conon, viz. the Orrin, Meig, the central and main falls of the 

 Conon itself, and also the Falls of Eogie on the Blackwater. 



I have already quoted Dr. Almond's saying, " If you want more 

 fish you must fish less," but in the Conon, when you fish less and 

 get more fish, you want to give a much wider extent of spawning 

 ground over which to distribute the fish. Is this a condition 

 beyond hoping for ? 



In the Orrin, the bed of the river beyond the fall is, of course, 

 alluvium, liable to much shifting during floods ; but it is taken 

 advantage of by many spawners. The water is rather stony 

 and shallow as a rule to be described as really good rod-fishing 

 water. I confess I have never visited the water above the falls. 

 No salmon are to be found there at present, and one hesitates 

 unnecessarily to penetrate into deer country, but a careful noting 

 of the gradient of Glen Orrin shows that the descent of the stream 

 is comparatively uniform, except perhaps at Cambaan, about the 



