12 



Appendices to Eighteenth Annual Report 



sea-trout. The latter are caught in numbers in Loch Coultrie, after 

 they have traversed Loch Damph above the fall, but although many 

 salmon are reported as ascending, I am informed that only about 20 

 are taken during the season. The spawning ground of the district is 

 above Loch Damph, in the stream between Loch Damph and Loch 

 Coultrie and in higher streams. On the left side of Balgay Fall — that 

 at which fish appear mostly to ascend — a secondary flow of water passes 

 off for a short distance so as to form a long, rocky island. By cutting 

 into the sill of the fall on the left side, the upper part of this flow could 

 be used with advantage as a salmon pass, or the secondary flow, which 

 is of comparatively easily gradient, could without much difficulty, I 

 think, be made to serve as the main channel of the river, leaving the 

 serious obstacle untouched, 

 emeasuring The Clerk to the District Fishery Board of the river Bervie — who is 

 Estuaries. a ] so Qi er k to the North Esk Board — has written to me with reference 

 to the proper time for r emeasuring the estuary of the Bervie. The 

 mouth of this river varies to some extent from year to year, and since, 

 by Schedule B of the Salmon Fisheries (Scotland) Act, 1868, the limits 

 of the estuary have to be determined by taking "a portion of a circle 

 of 150 yards radius, to be drawn from a centre placed mid-channel in 

 the river where it joins the sea at low water at equinoctial spring 

 tides, and continued shorewards by tangents to the circle drawn to the 

 nearest points of the shore of the respective sides of the river at high- 

 water mark, also of equinoctial spring tides," it happens that the limits 

 of the estuary have to be remeasured annually. The interpretation of 

 the expression " low water at equinoctial spring tides " seems to give 

 rise to some ambiguity, and since it happens that in some cases, as in 

 that of Bervie, a position suitable for the setting of a fixed net may 

 during one year be within the estuary, and during another year be out- 

 side the limits, precise measurement at the proper time becomes highly 

 necessary. It has been thought that some more definite understanding 

 than at present exists might, with advantage to many District Boards, 

 be arrived at. In Appendix IV. will be found correspondence between 

 Mr. Dickson, Clerk to the Bervie Board, and myself as to the proper 

 time for measuring the estuary. The establishment of estuarine limits 

 in cases where rivers run directly into the sea over what may be described 

 as the line of shore is necessarily matter of some difficulty, and in almost 

 all cases in Scotland where rivers enter the sea in this manner the defini- 

 tion is drawn up on lines exactly analagous to those already quoted in 

 the case of the Bervie. Reference to Schedule B of the Salmon Fisheries 

 (Scotland) Act, 1868, shows that the estuaries of the following rivers 

 are so defined : — Bervie, Brora, Dee (Aberdeenshire), Deveron, Don, 

 North Esk, Girvan, Inner (Jura), Iorsa (Arran), Laggan (Islay), Nairn, 

 Spey, Stinchar, Ugie, and Ythan. In the case of the Aberdeenshire 

 Dee it cannot be said that the limits of the estuary can be uncertain, 

 since the mouth of the river is confined by two pier-heads, but in the 

 case of the other large river on the list — the rapid Spey — we have an 

 instance of perhaps the most variable river mouth in the country. When 

 a flood on the river and a storm in the Moray Firth occur simul- 

 taneously, immense banks of gravel are removed, or thrown up in a 

 marvellously short time. In the winter of 1897 the District Fishery 

 Board found it advisable to cut a new mouth for the river, to give the 

 current a more direct entrance into the sea, and if possible to prevent the 

 spread of a delta-like formation. The new single and direct entrance 

 seems to be most satisfactory, but probably affords greater facilities for 

 netting the mouth of the river. 



In the case of many rivers, however, the variation of the mouth 

 necessitates annual remeasurement and expense, and it appears to me 



