Fishery Board for Scotland. 



lXXL 



SALMON FISHERIES. 



In the course of last year Mr Young, Inspector of Salmon Mr Young's 

 Fisheries, by the direction of the Board, inspected the fisheries iu Ins P ectlulls - 

 the Orkney and Shetland Islands, having previously, since the 

 beginning of 1883, inspected and reported upon all the salmon 

 fisheries on the Mainland of Scotland and in the Inner and Outer 

 Hebrides. Mr Young's Report on the Orkney and Shetland 

 Fisheries forms Appendix Gr. The Board approved generally of 

 this Report after having given it careful consideration. 



23,407 boxes of Scottish salmon were sent to Billingsgate market Value of 

 in 1886, which, at £8 per box, represents a value of £187,256 ; Sldmon 

 and, adding a half for salmon consumed at home and sent out of Billingsgate 

 the country, elsewhere than to London, gives £280,884 as the total Market - 

 value of the Scotch salmon fisheries in 1886. The following are 

 the returns of the number of boxes of Scotch salmon sent to London 

 during the last 10 years ; — 



Years. 



1877 

 1878 

 1879 

 1880 

 1881 



Boxes of Salmon sent 

 to London. 



28,189 

 26,465 

 13,929 

 17,457 

 23,905 



Years. 



1882 

 1883 

 1884 

 1885 

 1886 



Boxes of Salmon sent 

 to London. 



22,968 

 35,506 

 27,219 

 30,362 

 23,407 4 



On several of the Scotch rivers the salmon angling was good. Salmon 

 On the Tweed, for example, on the Floors waters about 400 fish gcotch S rivers. 

 were landed ; the heaviest being one killed by Mr Pryor, which 

 weighed 57| lbs. This is probably about the largest salmon ever 

 killed with the fly in Scotland, except one whose capture is 

 narrated in Mr Young's Report on the rivers of the Scotch shore 

 of Solway Firth. Mr Young writes as follows — 



Very large salmon have occasionally been taken on the Nith, and one of Heaviest 

 the heaviest ever captured by the rod was caught in 1812, in that part of the Salmon ever 

 river belonging to the estate of Barjarg, by an old poacher of the name of Jock killed by the 

 Wallace, who was celebrated for never having done a hand's turn of work in q° d A n 

 his life, except cutting his own firewood, which he generally did in other bcotland - 

 people's plantations. The salmon was hooked about 8 in the morning in a 

 pool called the 1 Clog,' and was gaffed in the ' Boat Pool of Barjarg ' by some 

 men coming home from their work at 6 in the evening. It was then found 

 that only two hairs of Wallace's casting line remained. The salmon was taken 

 to Barjarg Tower, and weighed immediately afterwards in presence of the 

 proprietor, Mr Hunter Arundell, who along with some other persons who were 

 present signed a certificate of its weight, a copy of which is now in the posses- 

 sion of his son, the present proprietor of Barjarg. The weight of this monster 

 was 67 lbs. 



On other angling waters in the Tweed District, for which returns 

 have been received, at least 1700 fish were killed with the rod last 

 year; and in the Aberdeenshire Dee, the Tay, the Earn, the Annan, 

 the North Esk, and some other rivers, the angling season for 1886 

 was a fairly good one. 



( * In the Notes to Mr Young's Report (Appendix G) there will be found a table 

 giving the number of boxes of Scotch salmon sent to Billingsgate, in each year, from 

 1834 to 1886, both years inclusive. 



