of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



29 



1893-94. 



Name of Stream. 



Spawning Commenced. 



JNo. oi Beds 

 for Season. 



Fiddich 



6th October, 1893 



566 



Avon 



17th 



» 



957 



Livet 



11th 





619 



Conglass 



12th 



» 



267 



Lochy 



- 12th 



55 



69 



Dulnan 



- 13th 



J) 



616 



Nethy 



- 18th 



)5 



183 



Druie 



14th 



55 



244 



Freshie 



- 14th 



55 



770 



Tromie 



- 14th 



55 



168 



Truim 



11th 



» 



75 



Spey (above Lag£ 



;an, Badenoch) 3rd 



5' 



101 



Total - - - 4635 Spawning Beds. 



Decrease in Spawning Beds from last year's number 652 „ 



The past salmon spawning season of 1893-94 on the Spey district gave very 

 good results notwithstanding a decrease of 652 spawning beds when compared 

 with the previous season of 1892-93. The River Fiddich, which was wont to 

 be the leading tributary for spawning fish, was, during the last season, as also 

 the previous one, most disappointing in regard to the very small number of 

 salmon that spawned therein. The total number of beds counted on the Fiddich 

 last season was 566. For the previous season (1892-93) the number was 18 

 beds below that of last season. Last season on this stream there was an in- 

 crease of about 50 per cent, of sea-trout beds when compared with the previous 

 season ; consequently when we deduct the sea-trout beds, which numbered 

 210, from the grilse and salmon beds, the real grilse and salmon beds for last 

 season will only count 356. The average number of sea-trout beds on Fiddich 

 during previous years would run to about 100 for the season. The best season's 

 spawning that I have seen on this stream was during the season of 1888-89, 

 when the total number of beds was 1045. During the two following seasons — 

 1889-90 and 1890-91 — the total number of spawning beds counted on the 

 Fiddich was even behind that of last season, but, on these occasions, the de- 

 ficiency was easily explained and understood by the fact that the other 

 tributaries were proportionally behind in numbers. There are now 5 distil- 

 leries on the banks of Fiddich in the Dufftown district, all of which discharge 

 their spent wash, spent lees, washings, and 'steep water' into said stream, 

 thus polluting the stream from Dufftown down to Spey, a distance of upwards 

 of four miles. Three of these distilleries — Parkmore, Balvenie, and Conval- 

 more — have commenced work within the last 18 months. It is not unreason- 

 able to assume that the deficiency in the salmon spawning on this stream dur- 

 ing the last two seasons is attributable wholly to the pollution of the stream by 

 said distilleries. That the refuse thus allowed to run into the stream from the 

 distilleries is of a deleterious nature to fish was clearly demonstrated by ex- 

 periments I carried out during the month of June last I took four samples 

 of water from the Fiddich below the distilleries during the time that a discharge 

 of refuse was running, corked and sealed the bottles ; then took sample from 

 Fiddich above distilleries, and corked and sealed that also. I then'took all 

 the samples to Fochaber's Salmon Hatchery, and filled four tumblers with the 

 polluted water and one with the clean sample. From the hatchery boxes I 



took 25 fine healthy salmon fry, putting 5 into each glass. Result fry in 



polluted water died in from one to two and a half hours, while the fry in the 

 clean sample seemed as much at home as if in hatchery boxes. 



As in the season 1890-91, from about the middle of October till end of Dec- 

 ember last, all the tributaries ran high in size, and continued dark or brown- 

 coloured during the height of the spawning over the tributaries, and it was on 

 rare occasions that the spawning fish could be seen by the bailiffs, and by the 

 time the streams returned to their normal size, the fish had spawned and left 

 their ' redds,' which were then to be seen and counted by the bailiffs, although 

 the fish had by this time finished their redds and drawn into the pools. When 

 spawning beds are counted in this way by the bailiffs, after a continued period 

 o'f brown-coloured water, the men are very cautious not to give in a list of any- 



