CHAPTER LXVIII 



THE EARN 



Drains three hundred and seventy-six square miles, and, issuing 

 from the loch of the same name at St. Fillans, it flows with a winding 

 course for upwards of fifty miles through a richly agricultural and 

 picturesque country, with many fine estates on its banks, until it 

 falls into the Firth of Tay a short distance above Newburgh. 



Some authorities describe this river as a tributary of the Tay, 

 but as the Earn falls into the estuary or Firth of Tay, where it has 

 a width of two miles of brackish tidal water, I think it can hardly 

 be regarded as an affluent of the river Tay in the same way as is the 

 Tummel ; and, moreover, it has not the same close times as the Tay ; 

 but however this may be, the river certainly merits a chapter to 

 itself, for in point of size it is a considerably larger river than the 

 Helmsdale, Beauly, Brora, or Thurso. The loch from which it 

 flows is seven miles in length by a little more than one in breadth, 

 and of great depth. Salmon can enter freely, but they are not 

 often seen there, while the capture of one by the rod is quite a rare 

 event ^ two somewhat remarkable matters, seeing what vast 

 numbers of fish ascend the river in wet seasons. 



The upper reaches run rather more swiftly than the lower ones, 

 but throughout its whole course, when it is in angling ply, there is 

 sufficient current to make pleasant casting, while ensurmg to any 

 hooked fish an increased power of offering a stiff down-stream fight. 

 So, without being a very rapid or roaring torrent, the Earn is yet 

 far removed from the sluggishness of the middle waters of the 

 Forth. 



From the Loch to Crieff Bridge is thirteen miles. From thence 

 to Bridge of Earn is a further twenty-five miles, with another eight 

 to the junction with the Tay Firth. The Earn opens on the nth of 

 February for rods and nets, the latter coming off on the 26th of 

 August, while the former fish till the 31st of October. The streams 

 of Ruchill, Lednock, Turret, Machany, Ruthven, and May are the 

 chief tributaries. There are no pollutions, though there are several 

 obstructions in the shape of cruive dykes and mill dams, all of which 

 in times of flood are easily passable, although in periods of drought 

 they are iust the reverse. ■ The first of these above the mouth is the 

 Dupplin cruive dyke, which is about two hundred yards long, 

 stretching obliquely across the river from bank to bank. The cruive 

 is placed between two small islands, and has but one box, through 



