APPENDIX B. 



CROYS ON SALMON RIVERS. 1 



IN all salmon rivers there are some pools which seem to be favourite resting- 

 places for fish, at certain seasons of the year and in suitable states of water ; 

 while there are other parts in which fish are seldom seen or caught, as they 

 apparently run through without a pause. The salmon somewhat resembles the 

 tourist in this respect ; both like comfortable quarters when they can get them, 

 and when these are found, both are ready to prolong their stay, if there is no 

 reason to hurry onwards to another place. We may leave the tourist to look 

 after himself, and the ways of attracting him to other people ; our object being 

 to show how more accommodation can be provided for salmon, with a view to 

 their occupying it long enough to give the angler the chance of catching them. 



Fishermen of a past generation evidently believed in training the course of 

 the river, as is indicated by the remains of croys in many localities. Their 

 labours would seem to have been chiefly directed to contriving places in which 

 fish would congregate and be easily taken out with a net. We can benefit by 

 their experience to the extent of attracting salmon to various parts of the river, 

 though our means of capture is to be the rod. Some of the ancient croys have 

 been maintained in good order, others have suffered from neglect and been 

 washed away by floods. In the days when it was customary to float timber 

 down the rivers, it was impossible to keep them in repair without annual out- 

 lay, a thing obnoxious to some people, especially at a time when salmon were 

 less valuable than at present. The result has been that stretches of water which 

 once produced fish are now barren wastes of shingle, with all the rocky bottom 

 overlaid with several feet of light gravel, on which no respectable spring salmon 

 cares to remain for any time. 



Some may enquire what a croy is ? It is a stone jetty or structure thrown 

 out into the river, and the name is derived from the Gaelic for "hard," which 

 latter word is applied locally in the South of England to signify a pier or land- 

 ing stage. 



The object of a croy is to divert or alter the character of the flow of water. A 

 sharp current may be required in pools to prevent silting up, or it may be 

 necessary to modify the force of the stream to save the banks, or to afford shelter 



il have to thank Messrs. Vinton & Co., Ltd., for permission to reproduce this 

 article by Mr. H. W. Johnston. It appeared in Bailey's Magazine, May 1908. 



