34 



THE SALMON RIVERS OF SCOTLAND 



day each, which is £720 per week, and as the trouting season lasts 

 for some sixteen weeks, they disburse in this county alone some 

 ;^i2,ooo in pursuit of their sport ! Yet there is a yearly difficulty 

 in getting Parliament to make a close time for these Little fishes that 

 bring such large sums into places which would hardly be visited 

 were it not for their speckled attractions. This calculation is much 

 under the mark, for many of the trout fishers are accompanied by 

 their famUies, and spend a great deal more on the hotel bid than my 

 modest estimate of 15s. a day, for I met several families who must 

 have daily spent ten times that amount. 



On leaving Melvich I partly drove and partly walked up the 

 Halladale to Forsinard, being much struck with the numbers and 

 well-to-do appearance of the crofters' houses, of which there must 

 be several hundreds, and it speaks well for them that cases of river 

 poaching are few and far between. On mj' way I was interested by 

 watching two families of peewits running about on a patch of short 

 grass, the old birds looking on proudly until a " hoodie " appeared 

 on the scene to make a dash for a breakfast at one of the young 

 ones, a purpose which the united attack of the four old birds speedily 

 defeated. 



Forsinard Hotel is another of those trouting centres which are 

 open to the public, worked very much on similar lines to Melvich. 

 There are, perhaps, a few less available lochs, but the fish book, with 

 the stuffed trout in the hall, bear mtness that there is sport to be 

 had. A ferox of loj lb. taken from Badenloch by Mr. Priestley 

 Edwards on the 20th of May 1897, brown trout of 6f and 5 lb., and 

 two others of 4 lb., are beauties to look at. From Loch SletiU, 

 near Forsinard, on the Bighouse shootings, a gentleman and the 

 keeper kUled, some twentj' years ago, 120 trout, which weighed 

 87 lb. At Forsinard also the lochs are restocked each year from the 

 Brora Hatchery. 



In 1904 the rod take of this river, including that of the Naver, 

 Borgie, Hope, Kinloch, and Strathy, was 308 salmon and grilse ; 

 in 1905, 418 fish ; in 1906, 678 fish ; in 1907, 793 fish ; in 1908, 510 

 fish ; in 1909, 684 fish, or an average of 565 fish per season. In the 

 same six years the nets of the district took 6257 salmon and 26,235 

 grilse, or nine grilse to two salmon, and the rods got one salmon or 

 grilse for every ten that the nets got. Approximately these 565 rod- 

 caught fish may be distributed somewhat as follows : — 



5'J5 



