90 



Appendices to Second Annual Report 



is about 3 feet high, and is not much of an obstruction. But it has 

 a very long lade, and there are no hecks exempt one above the 

 mill wheel. 



It is a mistake, I venture to think, to allow a comparatively 

 small river like the Annan to be worked by the sweep net for 

 commercial purposes above the point to which the tide ascends. 

 Yet at present the lower reaches of the river are so worked. They 

 would pay better, I believe, if let for angling ; and I understand that 

 an Angling Association has recently been formed at Annan which 

 might possibly find it well worth its while to lease the river nets 

 for the purpose of removal. The success of the Dee Fisheries Im- 

 provement Association in Aberdeenshire might encourage them to 

 make an effort. That Association have leased and removed the nets 

 on about 15 miles of the Dee with the happiest results to the river 

 fishings, so that, with the rod alone, 5000 salmon and grilse were 

 killed, in that river, in 1882 and as many in 1883. 



Connected with the Annan by a tunnel are the Lochmaben 

 Lochs, eight in number, four of which communicate with the Annan. 

 The largest of these is the Castle Loch, which covers upwards of 

 200 acres and contains 15 kinds of fish, including trout, roach, 

 chub, perch, pike, and the Yendace. Pike have been caught 

 weighing 35 pounds. The Yendace are fished for once a year by 

 the Yendace Club, an association of Dumfriesshire gentlemen. 

 The Yendace (Coregonus Willughbeii or marcenula) belongs to the 

 family Salmonidse. It is accounted a great delicacy, and, in this 

 country, is found only in two of the Lochmaben Lochs, the Castle 

 Loch and the Mill Loch. It is never taken by the fly, but is 

 captured by means of a net. It is esteemed a great delicacy for 

 the table. It breeds generally, but not invariably, about the middle 

 of November. Its colour is greenish blue along the back and upper 

 half of the body, silvery dashed with gold along the sides and 

 beneath. Fins rather dark. It attains a length of from 9 to 10 

 inches. 



The Annan, like almost all the rivers on the Solway and on the 

 west coast of Scotland, is a late river. Under the Solway Act of 

 1804 and the Annan Act of 1841, its annual close time was from 

 the 25th day of September to the 10th day of March in the year 

 following. Under the Salmon Fisheries Act of 1862 this was 

 altered, and the close time was fixed from 27th August to 10th 

 February, with extension of time for rod fishing from 27th August 

 to 31st October; and quite recently this has been again altered 

 under the 9th section of 'The Salmon Fisheries (Scotland) Act, 

 ' 1868,' by Order under the hand of the Secretary of State, and the 

 close season is now from 10th September to 24th February, with 

 extension of time for rod fishing from 10th September to 31st October. 



The Kirtle. 



About seven miles eastward of Annan, within the Annan Fishery 

 District, is the little river Kirtle, 17 miles in length. At present 

 it is more a sea-trout than a salmon river. But it might be made 



