27° THE SAOION RIVERS OF SCOTLAND 



Wading stockings are useful in fishing the Teith between its 

 exit from Loch Lubnaig and Doune. Any of the small standard 

 patterns will kill, and a rod of fourteen feet will cover the streams 

 and pools. 



Both rivers open on the nth of Februar_y, and have the usual 

 close times going with that date. 



The angling of both the Forth and the Teith is much spoilt by 

 the Craigforth cruive, two miles above Stirling ; not that the cruive 

 boxes themselves catch such a vast lot of salmon, but the dyke 

 obstructs the whole river and forces the fish to congregate below it, 

 where they are swept up by nets and cobles. 



The annexed illustration, for which I am indebted to the kind- 

 ness of Mr. W. L. Calderwood, the Inspector of Salmon Fisheries, 

 and which is copied from his Fishery Board Report of 1S9S, will 

 show the formidable nature of this cruive, and it is good news to 

 hear that in Mr. Calderwood's opinion there is some doubt as to its 

 being legally placed. In any case its existence is very harmful to 

 the rivers above it, and it seems a pity the upper proprietors do not 

 subscribe together and buy it up. 



I cannot leave this subject without congratulating Mr. Calder- 

 wood on the happy thought of illustrating his Reports by photo- 

 graphy. The Fishery Board Reports ought to be read by every 

 angler, but they have hitherto been somewhat dry perusal, which 

 illustrations such as those given with the 1898 Report would 

 render more amusing. 



A little below where the Teith falls in the Forth is joined on 

 the same bank by another considerable stream, the Allan, up which 

 a few fish poke their way in autumn, and down which very few ever 

 return, for the Allan banks are pretty thickly populated. It is not 

 worth mentioning as an angling river, and it would be just as well 

 for the fish if they were barred from ever entering it. 



It would hardly be right to take leave of the Forth District 

 without a short mention of the Howietown piscicultural establish- 

 ment, the most important in the kingdom. Started by Sir James 

 Gibson Maitland in 1873, year by year he improved and extended 

 it so cleverly and so successfully that it has ultimately gro\\m into a 

 large commercial business. Here salmon. Loch Leven trout, the 

 fontinalis, or American brook trout, common trout, and char are 

 hatched and reared by thousands, for there are upwards of forty 

 hatching houses and ponds covering many acres, from which 

 millions of eyed ova have been safely packed and sent to distant 

 parts of the world. In 1887 the manager reported the exportation 

 to New Zealand of 576,000 salmon ova obtained from the Forth, 

 Tay, and Tweed districts, all of which arrived in good condition. 

 Land-locked salmon and rainbow trout were imported in 1899, 

 and previously Loch Leven trout had been crossed with salmon, 

 and recrossed again with Loch Levens, the cross proving fertile, 

 and producing the largest fry in the fishery, and thus it appears, 

 likely that trout may be considerably increased in size by intro- 



