THE ALNESS 3 



they cannot defy and jeer at the laws while on land, yet when they 

 are on the water, as matters are at present, they can treat the law 

 with contempt. 



There is only one other salmon river flowing into the Cromarty 

 Firth — the Conon. Perhaps if the proprietors of the two rivers 

 combined together to suppress this poaching and to rent the Firth 

 nets, and work them only long enough to recoup them their outlay 

 and pay 6 per cent, on the money invested, the angling of both 

 rivers might be greatly improved. Good angling means the certainty 

 of letting it for a big rent, or the certainty of great sport if the 

 angling be kept by the owner. Of course he cannot eat his cake and 

 have it, but in either case the increased profit or increased sport will 

 pay a great deal better than the profit foregone on the netting after 

 expenses and interest have been earned. 



In the case of the Alness and the Conon, it is the latter river 

 that would derive by far the larger share of the benefits ; but that 

 is a matter that should be easily arranged amongst the different 

 proprietors of the two streams. 



Prior to the purchase of Ardross by Mr. Dyson-Perrins, this 

 beautiful place was rented by Sir Greville Smyth. During that 

 time his brother-in-law. Colonel Way, while fishing near the castle, 

 caught a salmon of some 9 lb., which he at once carried up to 

 the small loch in the grounds and turned it in. There it lived for 

 two years, in the meanwhile daily growing blacker and thinner, 

 until it died ; one more proof that a land-locked river salmon 

 cannot exist for very long in fresh water, even though there be a 

 constant stream passing through, as there was in this case. 



Since the above was printed some twelve years ago there is but 

 little to be added to the history of this charming stream. Un- 

 fortunately in 1902 the Sheriff and the Procurator-Fiscal of the 

 district came to loggerheads about cases of poaching ; the latter 

 asserting that though he was certain sea trout were being poached 

 under the pretence of fishing for flounders, etc., it was quite useless 

 to institute proceedings, as the Sheriff declined to convict unless 

 fish of the salmon kind were actually found in the possession of the 

 alleged poachers ; and as when the water bailiffs appeared the poached 

 sea trout were put into a weighted bag and dropped into deep water 

 — perhaps with luck to be fished up again — or perhaps lost altogether 

 — this illegal netting in the Cromarty Firth continues to flourish, 

 and during the last eight years there has not been a single prose- 

 cution for poaching ! With regard to this special kind of poaching, 

 both in this district and elsewhere, it seems to me that if water 

 bailiffs were provided with strong telescopes they could easily dis- 

 cern sea trout from flounders, and then if two bailiffs were prepared 

 to swear they had seen sea trout taken into a boat, that then their 

 joint word would have to be accepted as evidence, and thus the 

 poachers would be defeated. This is a river in which angling should 

 be ended by law on 30th September instead of the 31st October ; 

 for it is a very early spawning river in which salmon and sea trout 



