of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



21 



six or seven months the industry is annualty carried on. If the 

 Deveron were a thoroughly well-stocked river a limited amount of 

 netting could be allowed without injury and the netting be much 

 more valuable than at present. The conditions of each river have 

 to be considered on their own merits in this respect, the object 

 aimed at being to secure to the unnetted waters a proportion of 

 every run of fish which enter the river mouth. If the netting is 

 carried on too far up the river, the weekly close time becomes of 

 no value, since the upper nets catch on Monday and Tuesday the 

 fish which passed the lower net stations on the Sunday ; if physical 

 conditions cause all ascending fish to pause at certain points and 

 to congregate — and when the river is cold in the early part of the 

 season fish are easily checked in their ascent — the use of a net at 

 such points may remove whole runs of fish with a result injurious 

 to the best interests of the river. 



In the Deveron, however, there appears to be a cause of the 

 falling a\*ay of the stock other than the causes mentioned, although 

 in all probability various causes contribute in varying proportion ; 

 I refer to the unusual conditions noticeable by the silting up of 

 the river mouth by the opposing actions of the river on the one 

 hand and the sea on the other. I made short reference to the 

 barrier of gravel so formed in the Twentieth Annual Keport. The 

 action of north-easterly gales appears to be to force the river mouth 

 to the westward, yet the condition is ever an unstable one. At 

 the time of my visit, last December, the actual mouth of the river 

 was as far to the westward as the limits of Banff Bay and a 

 retaining wall at a street called Low Shore in the town of Banff 

 would permit. I have no doubt that this is the usual point of 

 outlet, as although from time to time breaches are made in the 

 gravel barrier of the beach — as had occurred just before my visit — 

 the overmastering force is that of the sea acting from a north- 

 easterly direction. Instead of flowing straight into the sea from 

 the direction of Banff Bridge, therefore, the water of the river is 

 turned to the westwards by the gravel barrier referred to, and a 

 long tidal basin or lagoon is formed, separated from the sea by the 

 barrier. At the retaining wall of Low Shore the water is turned 

 seawards through an opening grudgingly allowed, as it were, by the 

 sea. In December last this opening, even at high tide, was only 

 about 30 yards across, and when the river is low the sea is apt to 

 make it shallow by the formation of small deltas of sand and fine 

 gravel when the force of the fresh water current diminishes. 

 Many have confidently informed me that at such times the mouth 

 of the river is practically closed up and that no fish can possibly 

 enter. The tidal basin, while it gives storage room for a few old 

 fishing boats and is a suitable launching place for new boats built, 

 is a most unfortunate feature from the point of view of salmon 

 fishery interests, for two reasons : first, the natural flow and force 

 of the river is lost on entering this basin, and second, much water 

 finds its way into the sea by percolation through the gravel, so that 

 the actual volume of water at the outflow of the river is diminished. 

 The result is that a very poor lead in for fish is offered. I have no 

 hesitation in saying that for a river like the Deveron, with a 

 course of between 50 and 60 miles and a drainage area of 472 

 c 



