126 SALMONID^ OP BRITAIN. 



is the Forth, which is joined by the Teith a short distance above Stirling, and a 

 little lower down by the Allan ; its length to Queensferry is computed to be about 

 eighty miles, and its drainage area 880 square miles. Its chief tributary, the clear 

 and rapid Teith, possessing plenty of fine gravelly spawning grounds, is much 

 preferred by salmon and sea trout to the Forth, while on one of the affluents of 

 the Teith, or rather at the outlet of Loch Venachar, is an obstruction to the 

 ascent of salmon to the good spawning grounds above, in the shape of a dam and 

 sluices erected by the Glasgow Waterworks Commissioners.* 



The Tay is one of the earliest of the Scottish rivers, and has long been famous 

 for the number, size, and quality of its salmon. The largest British specimen in 

 the Buckland Museum, and which weighed 70 lb., having been- obtained from it. 

 In its course of about 150 miles it passes the fair city of Perth on its way to the 

 German Ocean near " bonnie Dundee ; " it drains 2500 square miles of country, 

 and has the greatest volume of water of any river in Scotland. Dr. Anderson 

 computed its contents passing Perth to be 3640 cubic feet 'a, second. The 

 Doehart, which rises in the extreme west of Perthshire, falls into Loch Tay, which 

 is sixteen miles in length, a mile broad, and in some places 600 feet deep, and is 

 usually considered the source of the river Tay. It ends in a long, bell-shaped 

 estuary, extending from Perth to Drumley Sands, a distance of about thirty 

 miles. 



J. Gillies, in 1824, gave evidence that when he " first went to Perth most of 

 the spawning was over by December ; but the chief time for spawning now (1824) 

 is generally in the months of December and January." 



Among the many instances of injuries inflicted on river fisheries by the 

 existence of stationary engines for catching the Salmonidae, erected in the estuaries 

 or near the mouths of rivers, few better examples can be quoted than the Tay.f 



* Daring the twenty years ending 1882-3 the average annual rents paid for fisheries in the 

 Forth were as follows : — The first five years, £2392 ; the second quinquennial period, £2458 ; 

 the third, £3288 ; and during the fourth and last period, £8811. The assessment on the rents 

 for conservative purposes has been about 20 per cent. As to fixed nets outside the estuary 

 of the Forth, there were, in 1883, in the twelve miles of coast between Elie and Fife Ness, sixty- 

 four bag and two fly nets. The rental of these is given at £760 a year. One experienced tacksman 

 put the annual take of fish in the district at about 4000 salmon and 1200 grilse, while about 200 fish 

 were captured by the rod. The produce of the fisheries was said to have fallen ofE of late years. 



t In the Report on Scottish Salmon Rivers by Mr. A. Young (Inspector of Salmon Fisheries 

 for Scotland), he remarked that the average yearly rental of th£ Tay was in 1884 about £20,000. 

 For some years the fishings had been deteriorating, and the estuary was so severely and 

 continuously netted during the open season, that but few fish could reach the upper waters until 

 the nets were taken off on August 21st. Four-fifths of the rentals of the river fisheries were 

 derived from those existing between CargUl railway-bridge (about 10 miles above Perth) and 

 the sea. 



Fixed nets were first erected in the Firth of Tay in 1799, and finally declared illegal in 

 1812. The average takes of the two fisheries imme^ately above the highest of those nets were 

 as follows : — 



10 years before the stake nets, annually 10,874 salmon, 2,211 grilse. 

 „ during „ „ 6,700 „ 2,429 „ 



after „ „ 11,316 „ 11,220 „ 



Similarly Bertram informed us that the annual average produce of the Kinfauns fisheries, 

 near Perth, which furnish one-fourth of that of the river, from the junction of the Isla to the sea, 

 and for the same period, were thus : — 



1788 to 1797, before the stake nets, annually 8,720 salmon, 1,714 grilse. 

 1801 to 1810, during „ „ 4,666 „ 1,616 „ 



1815 to 1824, after „ „ 9,010 „ 8,709 „ 



The number of 100 lb. boxes of salmon shipped from the Tay fisheries in 1812, the last year of 

 the fixed nets, was 1175, but in 1819, after they had been completely removed, 5694. About 

 1821 fixed nets were commenced, being employed along the coast of Forfarshire, and by 1825 the 

 takes in the Tay had become reduced one-half. We are further informed that from 1825 to 1884 

 inclusive, and immediately foUowing the passing of the Act of 1829, was the blackest the tenants 

 ever knew on the Tay. 



James Bell {Pari. Com. Report, 1824) deposed that he " gave up his fishing in 1819, as it 

 became decreasing. He had paid annually up to then £3500, but it fell ofE to £2000 per annum. 

 This was at the time Hunter's stake-net fishing along the coast began, when the fishing 

 immediately and very perceptibly diminished." 



Bussel (1864) remarked of this river and firth that although the rental had not been greatly 

 reduced during the past nine or ten years, this was owing to the price of fish having risen ; also 

 the proprietors had anticipated by voluntary agreement the improved legislation to which ttiey 



