MR. CALDERWOOD'S REPORT. 



Fishery Board for Scotland, 

 April 1900. 



I have the honour to submit to the Fishery Board for Scotland my 

 Annual Report for the year 1899. 



The different conditions which govern the proper maintenance of Annual tour 

 salmon fisheries situated in widely different localities induced me during of ins P ection - 

 my annual tour of inspection to visit 23 of the small fishery districts of 

 the West Highlands. The purpose of my tour was more especially to 

 study a group of districts much fished by means of bag nets, and to 

 compare this group with another where no bag-net fishing is carried on, 

 so that, if reliable information could be gained, the question of the coast- 

 salmon fishings in general might be approached. 



I have, therefore, prepared a report dealing with certain aspects of Report on 

 this question of coast salmon fishing. This forms Appendix I. to the ~°f st . salmon 

 present .Report. 



In last year's Report on Salmon Fisheries by the Fishery Board for Nith. 

 Scotland (p. x.) the unfortunate state of the fisheries which obtains in 

 the district of the river Nith is referred to. After some corres- 

 pondence with the Clerk of the District Board at Dumfries with a view 

 to ascertain what steps were proposed in order to carry out the require- 

 ments of the Salmon Acts, more especially by modifying the sixteen 

 dam dykes adversely reported upon in the Sixteenth Annual Report, 

 Part II., p. 9, I obtained the permission of the Board to make a personal 

 examination of the district. 



So far as the dam dykes are concerned in hindering the proper 

 development of the fisheries, a noticeable feature is that all the impassable 

 dams of the district are on the tributaries, and in several cases are 

 situated near to the confluence with the main river. The main stream 

 itself has no natural obstruction of any moment, and has only one built 

 obstruction — the Dumfries caukl. The general appearance of the Nith 

 and its tributaries is such as to lead one to believe that, given the con- 

 ditions by which a sufficient stock of fish could reach the upper waters, 

 a high state of efiiciency might be maintained. Under existing con- 

 ditions of the Solway fisheries it seems highly probable that only a 

 moderate supply of fish can be expected to reach their natural spawning 

 grounds, and on this account there seems some excuse for the argument 

 that until a greater run of fish is noticeable the opening up of additional 

 spawning grounds is to a certain extent unnecessary. Compared to 

 rivers of somewhat similar size — the Annan, the Solway Dee, the 

 Findhora, or the Deveron — the rateable ^value of the fisheries of the 

 Nith is very insignificant. Smaller rivers, where conditions of water- 

 flow are similar, such as the Nairn or the Ythan, show a rateable value 

 considerably in excess of the value of the Nith. From Note V. 

 appended to Part II. of the Sixteenth Annual Report it will be seen 

 that in the quinquennial period 1890-1895 the average values for the 



