of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



49 



NOTE II. 



REPORT BY MR. WALTER E. ARCHER, ON A SCHEME 

 FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE SALMON FISH- 

 INGS IN THE RIVER EARN. 



I have the honour to report that by the direction of the Fishery 

 Board for Scotland, and at the request of the Tay District Board, I 

 inspected the river Earn, a tributary of the Tay, on the 15th April, 

 and on the 15th and 16th June last, for the purpose of considering and 

 reporting on a scheme for the improvement of the fishings, proposed by 

 Sir Robert Moncreiffe in a memorandum to the salmon fishery pro- 

 prietors, dated November 1897. 



This memorandum was considered at a meeting of the proprietors and 

 tenants held in Perth on 22nd November, and it was subsequently 

 formally resolved, inter alia, by those representing fishings to the value of 

 £1325, out of a total of £2005, (1) that I should be asked, through the 

 Tay District Board, to consider and report on the scheme; and (2) that, 

 in the event of my reporting on it favourably, a committee, chosen from 

 eight of their number, should have powers, under certain specified con- 

 ditions, to carry it out. 



The question, therefore, which I have to deal with in my present report 

 is the question of whether it is desirable that the scheme should be 

 carried out, as until this question is decided the powers of the said com- 

 mittee are in abeyance. 



It would appear, from the memorandum referred to, that Sir Robert 

 Moncreiffe proposes that a committee of proprietors and tenants of 

 salmon fishings should be empowered to negotiate with the proprietors 

 of the net and cruive fishings to rent their fishings for a period of ten 

 years, so that by arranging for a longer weekly " slap " or otherwise, a 

 greater number of fish might be allowed to ascend the river. 



It may be explained that the Earn is a river of 52 miles in length, 

 with a drainage area of 376 square miles. In point of size, therefore, it 

 ranks with such rivers as the Beauty, Annan, and Border Esk, being 

 considerably larger than such streams as the Helmsdale, Brora, and 

 Thurso. It has also excellent natural capabilities for the production of 

 fish. But notwithstanding its natural capabilities, its productiveness is 

 much impaired by the efficiency of the nets in the lower waters and by 

 the obstruction to the passage of fish caused by several dam and cruive 

 dykes throughout its course. So great is the obstruction caused by 

 these nets and dykes that, I am informed, but few fish succeed in reach- 

 ing the upper waters until after the close of the netting season, and then 

 only in times of great flood. This I can readily believe, in view of the 

 great obstacle which Dupplin dyke forms to the passage of fish and the 

 opportunities of netting which the pools below it afford. I had an 

 opportunity of seeing this dyke when the river was in flood and also 

 when it was at an ordinary summer level, and I am convinced, from the 

 great pressure of water rushing through the cruives, and the great 

 length of the dyke and consequent shallowness of the water flowing over 

 it, that, except in times of great flood, it must form an almost, if not 

 quite, insurmountable obstacle to the fish. 



