242 THE SALMON RIVERS OF SCOTLAND 



net which has more than once been already given, 1 but which will 

 bear repeating ; no account of the Thurso would be complete with- 

 out it. This catch was vouched for in the written statement of 

 three eye-witnesses on 23rd August 1792, and runs as follows : 

 " Mr. George Paterson, now Bailie of Thurso ; George Swanson, 

 shoemaker there ; and Duncan Finlayson, senior fisher there, do 

 hereby certify and declare that upon the 23rd day of July, old style, 

 we think in the year 1743 or 1744, there were caught at one haul 

 in the Cruive Pool, upon the water above the town of Thurso, 2560 

 salmon. These fish were caught by a large net beginning the sweep 

 at the Cruive, and coming down the stream to a stone at the lower 

 end of the pool. The net was carried down the water by eighteen 

 or twenty men with long poles in their hands keeping down the 

 ground rope, and the fish were afterwards taken ashore by dozens 

 in a smaller net. Each man got a fish and some whisky for his 

 trouble. "We further personally certify and declare that we were 

 personally present when these fish were caught. Signed : George 

 Paterson, George Swanson, Duncan D. F. Finlayson." This 

 miraculous draught of fishes, occurring as it did in summer, was in 

 all probability owing to the presence of the cruive dyke now 

 removed preventing the natural distribution of fish in the river. 

 Salmon had been able to run in from the sea, but for some time 

 had been unable to surmount the cruive dyke, and so congregated 

 in great numbers below the obstruction. That their presence there 

 in unusual numbers had been noted, and that a special effort was 

 made to secure a great catch, seems suggested by the unusual 

 methods adopted by the large number of extra hands employed. 

 One is inclined to surmise that there were few fish to be found in 

 the upper waters in the autumn after this big catch. But it is 

 surprising how the stock must have kept up, since for many years 

 after this date the river as well as Loch More were netted, and kelts 

 seem to have been systematically killed. In our present way of 

 regarding matters we would not give much for the chance of fishing 

 a river so severely handled by nets, cruives, cross-lines, and leisters 

 as the Thurso used to be. 



The fame of the river is almost wholly in connection with the 

 early fishing, and for very many years the Thurso was regarded as 

 the earliest river in Scotland, as well, perhaps, it may even be said, 



1 Third Annual Report Fishery Board for Scotland, p. 122, and Augustus Grimble, 

 Salmon Rivers of Scotland, i. p. 239. Reference to this take is made in Sir John 

 Sinclair's Statistical A ccount of Scotland, vol. xx. p. 522. 



