6 
Appendices to Tenth Annual Report 
* inquiries about the Ericht lead to the recollection that I stayed a week 
1 at Blairgowrie in August 1861, and my impression at that time was, 
' that, as a tributary of the Isla, and one of the feeders of the Tay qualified 
1 in an eminent degree for the reception of breeding salmon, it was 
4 receiving cruel treatment at all hands. The fish were purposely, I 
' understood, kept down by one of the influential proprietors near the 
1 mouth, and rarely found opportunity to gain the fine stretch of spawning- 
' ground extending towards the Bridge of Callie, and beyond it into the 
1 Shee and Ardle. The Act of 1862, I thought, had put to rights the 
' then existing abuses, but it appears it has not done so.' 
It is quite apparent from the above authorities that the salmon-fishings 
in the Ericht, within living memory, were of considerable value. It is 
equally apparent that they have now almost ceased to exist. 
On Thursday afternoon I carefully inspected the obstructions at Blair- 
gowrie, beginning with Westfield dam, which is highest up the river. At 
the time the Ericht was very low, owing to the long continuance of dry 
weather, and scarcely any water was coming over the dams, while long 
stretches of the river's bed were nearly quite dry, owing to the almost 
total absorption of the water by the lades. Not a drop of water was 
coming over Westfield dam, and the Macdonald fish way, on the left bank 
of the river, had the appearance of having been dry for weeks, and was 
very much choked up with gravel. 
The state of the Ericht in dry weather shows that the recommendation 
made twenty years ago by Mr Buckland and myself, in our Report of 
1871, that some control should be exercised by legislative enactment 
over the quantity of water taken from salmon rivers by millers and 
manufacturers was not uncalled for. 
The dam at Ashbank and its Macdonald fishway were in the same 
position as those at Westfield. 
When I visited the Keith, which is a long, narrow, foaming rapid, 
headed by a fall of considerable height and volume, I was told by the 
gardener at Keith House that he had sometimes seen salmon in the deep 
pool at the foot of the Keith, but he did not think that they ever 
succeeded in getting up. I adhere to the opinion which I expressed 
many years ago, when I first inspected the Keith, that the only way to 
enable salmon to ascend is to cut a pass through the conglomerate rock 
on the right bank, beginning a good way up, pretty close to the right 
bank, and to carry this cutting dow^n to nearly the foot of the rapid, not 
far from which there is a sort of natural salmon-ladder in the rocks. 
The fishway on the low dam immediately above Blairgowrie Bridge is 
in the wrong place, and is too smooth. But when the river is in such a 
state as to induce salmon to run — that is to say, clearing and subsiding 
after a flood — I think that they will be able to ascend over the rough 
stones that form the face of the dam. 
Between this dam and the Keith there is a second and considerably 
higher dam, with a fishway on it formed of smooth wooden planks — about 
the worst material of which a fishway can be constructed. This should 
be roughened by having planks nailed on at intervals. I was glad to 
see, however, that a suggestion I made some years ago has been given 
effect to, and that a cut has been made through the crest of the dam 
down to the head of the fishway. 
On Friday, the 5th June, I inspected the Ericht above Westfield dam, 
and the lower portions of the Ardle and Shee. There are some fine rocky 
pools and streams on the Craighall Water, on the Ericht. There are 
about 6 miles of the Ericht between Westfield and the junction of the 
Shee and Ardle near Bridge of Cally. The Ardle has a course of 
