of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



127 



river Doon, dated 1855, Mr James Leslie, C.E., afterwards Com- 

 missioner of Scotch Salmon Fisheries, and Mr Shaw of Drumlanrig 

 recommend, among other things for improving the Salmon Fisheries, 

 that * no stake nets, bag nets, or implements of any description for 

 ' the catching of fish ought to be used within 2000 yards in a 

 ' straight line from the nearest part of the fresh water stream of 

 ' the river, as traceable along the sands at low water of spring tides, 

 ' and as far as possible these modes of fishing ought to be given up 

 ' altogether, or not continued longer than the 10th of August. 

 ' This removal of all fixed obstructions to the entrance of the 

 ' salmon into the river, ought to be one of the first things taken 



* into consideration and adopted by the Associated Heritors of 

 ' Doon, else all other appliances to facilitate the ascent, increase, 

 ' and protection of the salmon in the river will be of little moment 

 ' to the fishings generally.' The estuary line originally drawn up 

 by the Commissioners of Scotch Salmon Fisheries, under the 

 Salmon Fisheries Act of 1862, included the mouths of the Ayr and 

 Doon, and consequently excluded all fixed nets from between their 

 mouths. It extended from Deil's Eock, about 1600 yards to the 

 south of the mouth of the Doon, to Bell Eock, about a mile and a 

 third to the north of the mouth of the Ayr. A map of this estuary 

 line, and also of the estuary lines ultimately fixed by the Secretary 

 or State, on 16th April 1864, for the Doon and Ayr separately, will 

 be found in Appendix No. XII. to the Eeport of 1871, by Mr 

 Buckland and myself, on the effect of recent legislation on the 

 Salmon Fisheries in Scotland.* 



At the Dalrymple Bobbin Mill, some miles up the Doon, there 

 is a turbine wheel, which would require a small-meshed wire heck 

 or grating to prevent the smolts being swept into it, and killed at 

 the time when they are descending to the sea. Below this mill, 

 and between the tail-lade and the Doon, there is a great mound of 

 sawdust, which forms for several yards the banks of the river. 

 This is highly objectionable, as every flood must inevitably sweep 

 away parts of this mound into the stream, to the great injury of 

 the fish in the neighbourhood, whose gills it is apt to choke up, and 

 so kill them by mechanical poisoning. A great heap of sawdust 

 left in such a position is quite contrary to the 7th subsection of the 

 15th section of ' The Salmon Fisheries (Scotland) Act, 1868/ which 

 provides that every person ' who wilfully puts or causes to be put, or 

 ' neglects to take reasonable precautions to prevent the discharge 

 1 of any sawdust, or any chaff, or any shelling of corn, into any river, 



• shall for every offence be liable to a penalty not exceeding £5, and 

 ' to a farther penalty not exceeding £2, for every salmon taken or 

 ' killed in an illegal manner, and shall forfeit the salmon so taken.' 



Before the end of last century, Loch Doon discharged its 

 waters in flood over a steep rock into Ness Glen ; and the floods 



* It is but fair to state that some persons of great local experience strongl)'' object 

 to the removal of the fixed nets between the mouths of the Doon and Ayr. One 

 lessee of salmon fishings writes me — 'If such fishings were done away with, where 

 ' would we look for a supply for our markets ? ' The answer to which appears to me 

 to be, that there would be abundance of stake and bag nets left along the Ayrshire 

 coasts to supply the market, even if those now fishing between the mouths of the 

 Ayr and the Doon were removed. 



