8 



Appendices to Twenty-fifth Annual Report 



no provision exists for a corresponding adjustment of the estuary, 

 the result being that the bag nets on the north side are now con- 

 siderably nearer the river mouth than formerly. Since my last 

 inspection of the district I have been in correspondence with the 

 Clerk to the Board in connection with the proposals to remove 

 river and sea nets in order to improve the stock of fish. The 

 Marquis of Ailsa's sweep nets at the mouth of the river have for 

 some years been unfished, but inasmuch as a certain amount of 

 netting of spring fish in the upper water continues, it has, I under- 

 stand, been impossible to come to an agreement locally for the 

 satisfactory carrying out of the policy recommended. This, there- 

 fore, is an instance of the need for compulsion included in the 

 recommendations of the Eoyal Commission to which reference has 

 already been made. 



Spey. As reported on a previous occasion, the nets on the Spey are now 



confined to the three lowest miles of the river instead of eight miles 

 as formerly. This is sufficient at most times to secure the operation 

 of the weekly close time. 



N esSt All netting has, for a period of four years, been removed from the 



river Ness since the commencement of fishing season 1905. 



In thus describing what has been accomplished in removing nets 

 from situations where injury is done to the breeding stock of our 

 rivers, I have, at the same time, made an estimate of the net and 

 coble fishing which remains. 



Present Extent of Net and Coble Fishing in Scotland. 



Two important districts are still conspicuous for the great extent 

 of netting carried on in fresh and tidal waters. I refer to the 



Tweed Tweed and the Forth. The former does not officially come under 

 the superintendence of the Fishery Board for Scotland, but from a 

 report with which the Clerk to the Tweed Commissioners has 

 favoured me it appears that no change has in recent years taken 

 place and that sixteen miles of river from Berwick to Coldstream 

 are still regularly netted. I am informed that the number of 

 stations fished is 39 and that 62 nets are in use. I incline to 

 think that so long a belt of nets is more than sufficient to defeat 

 the purpose of any reasonable weekly close time. 



Forth. In the Forth, sweep netting is carried on in the long tidal 



portion of the river from Alloa to Craigforth, about 2^ miles above 

 Stirling, a distance in all of 16 miles. The district of the river 

 Forth is peculiar in this that it contains within its borders a large 

 arm of the sea, the Firth of Forth, in addition to an estuary as 

 extensive as that of the largest Scottish river, the Tay. From Fife 

 Ness on the north, the district extends to the county boundary 

 between Berwick and Haddington on the south. The counties of 

 Fife, Kinross, Linlithgow, Edinburgh, and Haddington may be 

 said to be without salmon rivers. No other district has such a 

 large proportion of sea-coast and estuary, and, in spite of the fact 

 that the rivers Forth and Teith are of considerable volume, no other 

 district has a smaller proportion of fresh-water mileage. The 



