of the Fisher// Board for Scotland. 



55 



left of the island. It is an iron cage of an elongated pyramidal shape 

 with an inverted mouth of similar form. The principle of the trap is 

 precisely that of the lobster-pot. The apex of the inner pyramid is 

 open, and through this the fish swim into the cage, from which there is 

 no exit. A small iron crane about 9 feet high is erected in the staging 

 above the creel, and by it the latter is raised and lowered. Fish are 

 extracted through a hinged door in the cage. The measurements of t he 

 creel are as follows: — Extreme length, 6' 6"; the mouth or broadest 

 part of the cage, 2' 9"x2' 4", with bars 2" apart; sloping side of in- 

 verted mouth, 3' ; entrance to cage at apex of inverted mouth, 6 inches 

 by 4 inches. When the creel is being fished, the staging is closed to 

 the passage of fish of any size by the insertion of a series of wooden 

 hecks, the spars of which are vertical and 3 inches apart. The staging 

 is 3 feet 4 inches above the stream-bed where the creel is fitted ; the 

 space between the posts which support the creel on either side being 

 3 feet 2 1 inches. No exception can be taken to the hecks, which 

 represent, in this case, the cruive dyke, but I venture to think that the 

 " creel " or cruive box is as illegal as the old baskets formerly used at 

 the Falls of Tummel, and that fishing by means of it should be entirely 

 discontinued. 



3. The cruives of Don at Gordon's Mills aie upwards of two miles 

 from the sea, by the course of the river. The dyke is sickle-shaped, the 

 cruive boxes being in the handle part of the sickle on the left side of 

 the river. Mr. Young, in the First Annual Report, p. 21, describes 

 the cruives as the worst in Scotland. A considerable alteration in the 

 condition of the river seems, however, to have occurred since this 

 description was written in 1883, "the objectionable appurtenance" 

 of the Baron's Grain — a cul-de-sac beneath the blade-part of the sickle — 

 having become entirely filled up. This old pool, which was complained 

 of as a trap for salmon, presents now the appearance of a large irregular 

 grass-covered bank, only separated from the island upon which the neck 

 or angle of the dyke rests by a shallow channel which may be filled 

 with water at times of flood. The curved portion of the dyke has 

 apparently been heightened, and is now smooth with a covering of 

 cement. The four cruive boxes are arranged in two pairs, and between 

 the two pairs, below the dyke, a "tail" of debris has formed and is now 

 grass-covered for a distance of about forty yards. The pool below, into 

 which this bank extends, is still fished from the original island which 

 separated this pool, known as the Lebby Pot, from the Baron's Grain. 

 The imperfect dam across the channel at the low end of the Lebby Pot 

 is maintained for the purpose of keeping up the water level, since the 

 netting of the Pot rather than the inscales of the cruive boxes are 

 looked to for the purpose of remuneration in the fishing. In my 

 general Report to the Board I have referred (p. 7) to this check- 

 dyke as in all probability an illegal structure. I am informed 

 by the local inspector that hardly any fish are taken in the inscales, 

 and that of late years even the netting of the water below has 

 not been a success, and this in spite of the fact that the injurious 

 habit of netting close up to the races coming from the cruive boxes has 

 been constantly practised. The cruives are of the minimum size per- 

 mitted by Schedule F of the Salmon Fisheries (Scotland) Act, 1868. A 

 view of two of them will be found in Plate I. appended. The fishings 

 connected with the cruives are held by eight individuals, whose interests 

 differ to a considerable extent. The condition, so far as I am aware, is 

 unique in Scotland. In all other localities the right of cruive fishing 

 seems vested in an individual. Just below the cruives on the left 

 bank is the outflow of the lade which supplies the Grandholm Mills. 

 There is now a most substantial heck upon it. The intake of this lade 



