64 WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS chap. 



quantity of shingle and gravel, which is always shifting its 

 place, and changing the course of the lower part of the water, 

 there are no cruives made use of. They would probably be 

 destroyed as fast as they were built. In the Spey, however, 

 and many other rivers, large cruives are built, which quite pre- 

 vent the ascent of the fish, excepting on Sundays and on 

 floods. To describe a cruive minutely would be tedious. It 

 is, however, merely a kind of dam built across the river, with 

 openings here and there, allowing the water to pass through in 

 a strong stream, and through which the fish ascend and get 

 into a kind of wooden cage, out of which they cannot find their 

 way again, the entrance being made after the fashion of a wire 

 mouse-trap, affording an easier ingress than egress. Much do 

 the anglers on the upper part of the Spey pray for a furious 

 iiood„or spate, as it is called, which may break down these 

 barriers, and enable the salmon to ascend to the higher pools 

 before the fishermen can repair the damage done. 



The right of fishing in many of the Scotch rivers is vested 

 in a very singular manner ; as, for instance, in the Findhorn, 

 where the proprietor of many miles of land along the river 

 banks has no right to throw a line in the water, but is obliged 

 to pay a rent for fishing on his own ground. Indeed, this kind 

 of alienation of the right of fishing from the person who would 

 seem to be the natural proprietor of it is very common. I 

 remember an anecdote told me by an old Highlander as to the 

 cause of the fishing in a particular river in Sutherland being 

 out of the hands of the proprietor of the land on its banks. 

 The story is as follows : — The laird of the property higher up 

 on the water was also the possessor of a small island in the 

 river. He was a deep, long-headed fellow, and grudged his 

 neighbour the profit he made out of the fishing just below him, 

 the water on the upper part not being so good. He therefore 

 commenced building a fort on the island, and falling in with 

 his neighbour, asked him in an off-hand way to give him, 

 merely, he said, for the convenience of his workmen, a right 

 of fishing the whole river until his building was completed, 

 salmon in those days being used as a means of feeding the 

 numerous retainers and servants who lived upon and followed 

 every laird and chieftain. Indeed, but a few years back it was 

 often made a stipulation by servants on being hired by a 



