Iq:: the salmon RIVERS OF SCOTLAND 



water — three reasonable propositions which should certainly be 

 made law. 



There is only one case of pollution on the Conon, caused by 

 the Muir of Ord Distillery, from which large quantities of 

 "burnt ale" are poured into the river — a refuse which has 

 been proved to be most poisonous to fry, par, and smolts, 

 while its presence in the river makes salmon and grilse sick, 

 sulky, and disinchned to rise to the fly. The recent litigation 

 on the Spey on this very subject has resulted in a declaration 

 that the discharge of poisonous refuse into a river is illegal ; 

 therefore, should this nuisance still exist, the Conon proprietors, 

 thanks to the action of the Spey proprietors, now have it in their 

 power to do away with it without incurring the expense of a long 

 lawsuit. 



There is a good hatchery near Conon Bridge, from which about 

 70,000 fry of seven weeks old are turned into the river each 

 season, and exchanges of ova have been made between the Conon 

 and the Thurso and the Tweed. The result at present is uncertain ; 

 but some of the proprietors were against trj'ing Tweed ova on the 

 ground that the two rivers were so unlike in the character of their 

 courses and their waters. 



The Conon district extends from Tarbat Ness on the north to 

 the ^^'est Sutor of Cromarty, in which is included nearly the whole 

 shore of the Cromarty Firth. In 1892 the Fishery Board Reports 

 began to publish the approximate take by cruives, nets, and cobles, 

 bag-nets and rods, and for that year the estimate for the three 

 former was Sooo fish, while the rods took 730. In 1893 it was 

 14,000 netted against 400 to the rods ; in 1894 it was 16,000 to 

 650 ; and in 1895 it was 27,200 against 800. Since then no 

 returns have been published ; but the statistics of the above 

 four years show that the nets had about thirty fish for every 

 one got by the rod, a figure which, though greatly in excess of 

 a fair proportion, is not so high as on many other rivers. In 

 this report of the rod fishing the take of the river Alness is also 

 included. 



The Conon is well protected by a permanent inspector with a 

 staff of four baihffs ; poaching, however, is mainly carried on in 

 the Cromarty Firth. In 1896, a boat's crew was prosecuted for 

 fishing in the firth with a small mesh sweep net for fish of the 

 salmon kind. The case was clearly proved, and the crew, 

 consisting of either four or five men, were fined los. each, 

 with 20S. costs — a total of £^, los. at the outside, which the 

 illegal capture of two or three dozen sea trout with a few grilse 

 would speedily recoup, and leave a handsome profit into the 

 bargain. Magistrates apparently overlook the fact that aU fines 

 should be made so heavy as to preclude any chance of an 

 ultimate profit being gained on an illicit haul. If this were 

 done, then poachers, both here and elsewhere, would soon cease 

 from troubling, leaving only the seals to take their place ; and in 



