THE BEAULY 183 



a total of 8762 each season, with the average of tlie i86g period, 

 which shows but 5565 fish per season, we have a fahing off of 3197 

 fish every year. In addition to that great decline, it cannot be too 

 strongly brought to the notice of those who make our salmon laws 

 that the old statistics show thirty-two salmon for every fifty-five 

 grilse, while recent ones only give thirteen salmon to forty-two 

 grilse ! 



Now, it was only at the commencement of the present century 

 that bag-nets came into existence, and these figures show very 

 clearly that as those fixed engines increased in number and efficiency, 

 slowly but surely their destructiveness began to make itself felt. 

 As they multiplied, so pari passu did the stock of all the rivers 

 decrease. Fortunately, the estuary line fixed for the Ness and the 

 Beauly is a right and proper one, and not made in the interests of 

 the bag-nets, and to curtail it would be to deal a serious blow to the 

 stock and to the prestige of the two rivers. At present the estuary 

 is a line drawn from the Carse of Ardesier, on the south shore of 

 the Moray Firth, to the Three Burns on the north one, and the 

 proposal to set it back seven miles would, if carried out, ruin both 

 Beauly and Ness. 



A little below the falls of Kilmorack comes Beaufort Castle, 

 Lord Lovat's headquarters, so beautifully situated on the bank 

 of the river, and certainly one of the best places in Scotland for 

 all-round sport. The Castle angling begins immediately below the 

 falls and extends down on both banks for about three miles, in 

 which there are fifteen good pools and some " bitties." The best 

 are the Bridge Pool, Fairy, Colonel's Stane, Mill, Mare's, Cruive, 

 Charlie, Silver, Castle, Minister's, Island, Long Ridge, and Downie. 



On this reach, in a favourable season, from 200 to 300 fish 

 can be got between the middle of June and the middle of October. 

 It was here that the late Lord Lovat and Colonel Duff made the 

 three celebrated scores in 1854. His lordship in eight days, between 

 the 20th of June and the 6th of July, had 128 fish. In 1859, Colonel 

 Duff, commencing on the ist of July, had 106 fish by the evening of 

 the 7th ; and then in 1864, Lord Lovat, commencing on the 27th 

 of June, had in five days 146 fish, or an average of just over twenty- 

 nine a day. 



In 1892 the report of the Fishery Board states that the take 

 in the tidal waters of the district was but 457 salmon and 3299 

 grilse ; while the captures to the rod on the Beauly and its tributaries 

 were 64 salmon and 536 grilse. 



The river opens on the nth of February, and closes on the ist of 

 August for nets and on the 15th of October for rods. There are 

 always clean fish on the opening day, but not so many now as there 

 were formerly. 



Lord Lovat is, however, doing everything he can to improve 

 the river, and even minor details, such as the destruction of pre- 

 daceous birds and the netting and shooting of seals in the Beauly 

 Firth, are prosecuted ^^•itll vigour, while special attention is directed 



