of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



123 



Mr Buckland and I visited them in 1870. There is a District Board 

 on the Girvan, and the salmon fishings in the Doon are regulated 

 by the Associated Heritors of the River Doon, of which Association 

 the Marquis of Ailsa is chairman. At intervals along the 70 

 miles of coast, there are considerably upwards of a hundred fly and 

 bag nets. And these nets are allowed to be placed, and are placed 

 and used, only 400 yards from the mouths of the Ayr, Doon, Irvine, 

 and Garnock; only 350 yards from the mouth of the Stinchar; and 

 only 300 from the mouth of the Girvan. And, what is still more 

 objectionable, several fly and bag nets are allowed to fish between 

 the mouths of the rivers Ayr and Doon, which fall into the sea 

 less than two miles apart from each other ; although the Commis- 

 sioners, under the Salmon Fisheries Act of 1862, recommended an 

 estuary line from Deil's Dyke to the south of the mouth of the Doon 

 to Bell Eock to the north of the mouth of the Ayr, which, of course, 

 would have effectually prevented any fishing by fixed nets between 

 the mouths of these two rivers. Upon this subject Mr Buckland 

 and I wrote as follows in Appendix No. XII. to our Eeport of 

 1871 : — ' We think that the present estuary line is a great mistake, 

 ' being much too contracted. Two rivers like the Doon and Ayr, 

 ■ flowing into a bay of the sea so near each other, ought to have 

 ' only one estuary, and no fixed nets should be allowed between 

 ' their mouths.' My recent inspection of the estuaries of these two 

 rivers has only served to confirm my conviction of the correctness 

 of the views thus expressed thirteen years ago. I shall now proceed 

 to report upon the Ayrshire Rivers, individually, beginning with 

 the southmost. 



The Stinchar. 



The Stinchar is a beautiful mountain stream, rising in the 

 upland moors of the parish of Barr, and falling into the sea at 

 Ballantrae, after a course of somewhat less than thirty miles. 

 There are scarcely any pollutions ; and though there are dams at 

 Daljarroch and Pinclantie, they do not seriously obstruct the 

 passage of fish when the water is in such a state as to induce them 

 to run. Fixed nets, however, are permitted within 350 yards of 

 the mouth of the river, whereas they ought to be removed to at 

 least 700 yards. The sweep net, too, is used freely within the 

 river itself ; and this complete and systematic netting in so small 

 a stream, effectually prevents anything like a fair proportion of 

 salmon and grilse from reaching the upper waters until after the 

 10th of September, when the netting season closes. The sea nets 

 capture the majority of the fish seeking the river, while those that 

 escape the sea nets are taken by the sweep nets in the lowest mile 

 of the river; and it is alleged by persons on the spot, who have 

 known and observed the Stinchar for many years, that the effect of 

 this constant use of the sweep net has been almost to annihilate sea- 

 trout, and to render abortive any advantage that might otherwise 

 have resulted from the institution of a weekly close time. From 

 the dam at Daljarroch down to the sea, a distance of some eight 



