RIVER NESS 63 



Setting aside this impediment, and cczteris paribus, 

 I believe the season of all rivers depends upon the 

 temperature of their waters during the winter and 

 spring months. Thus the Ness is the forwardest 

 river in Scotland, which the following table of 

 monthly captures produced by Mr. Alexander 

 Fraser* will prove. 



STATEMENT OF THE NUMBER OF SALMON KILLED IN 

 THE NESS IN TWELVE YEARS 



Now it must be observed that the Ness never 

 freezes, even with the most intense frost. In the 

 year 1807, when the thermometer at Inverness was 

 from 23 to 30 and even 40 degrees below the freezing 

 point, it made no impression upon the river or the 

 lake. ' The Ness (says Mr. Fraser) was always 

 privileged earlier than any river in Scotland from 



* Evidence before Select Committee in 18.15, p. 42. 



