SPRING SALMON FISHING. 57 



on the 15th of January, undoubtedly run during December and 

 January. Again, on the whole of the west coast of Scotland the 

 rivers are late, with but few exceptions ; and so are our English 

 streams. It may be said that the dividing point between the early 

 or spring rivers of Scotland and the late ones is at Loch Erribol 

 on the north coast of Sutherlandshire. From thence westward 

 to Cape Wrath, and thence southward along the whole of the west 

 coast as far as the head of the Solway Firth, the rivers are late ; 

 while those entering the sea between Loch Erribol and Duncansby 

 Head, and thence southward as far as the Tweed, are early. The 

 temperature of the sea and of the rivers, together with local con- 

 ditions of the latter, no doubt account materially for this apparently 

 singular discrepancy, and I am inclined to think with Mr. Archibald 

 Young, the late able Inspector of Scotch Fisheries, in this matter. 

 As he remarks, the Scottish rivers entering the German Ocean are 

 almost all early rivers ; they have comparatively long courses, and 

 fall into the sea at considerable distances from their sources, after 

 flowing for some part of their career through districts not greatly 

 elevated and possessing a moderate climate. But the German 

 Ocean, into which those rivers run, is a cold sea ; and in winter and 

 early spring the river temperature is, in ordinary seasons, probably 

 higher than that of the sea, and, therefore, salmon ascend those 

 rivers early in the year. 



On the west coast, on the other hand, the rivers falling into the 

 Atlantic are nearly all late. They have short courses, and their 

 fountain heads are much tilted up, as they rise in that lofty and 

 picturesque chain of mountains which, beginning in the neighbour- 

 hood of Cape Wrath, skirts the shores of Sutherland, Ross, and 

 Inverness for over one hundred miles, at distances varying from 



I 



