XXVI 
Report on Salmon Fisheries. 
Inspections 
during tlie 
summer and 
autumn of 
1890. 
River Awe. 
River Aros, 
Island of Mull. 
Locldomoml 
an«l rivers con^ 
nected with it. 
* and energetic in the performance of that duty as they might have 
' been. His Lordship then pronounced the following interlocutor: 
' — Edinburgh, 10th December 1886. — The Lord Ordinary having 
' considered the cause with the proof adduced, and heard parties, 
* Finds that the nets in question belonging to the defenders re- 
* spectively are fixed stake-nets or paidle-nets, and are fixed and 
' erected on the River Nith or estuary thereof, and upon the sands 
' and shores between high and low water mark within the limits 
' of the district of the River Nith, as defined by the Commissioners 
' acting under the Salmon Fisheries (Scotland) Act, 1862 : Finds, 
' therefore, that the said nets are illegal : Finds further, and 
* se'pavdtim, that the said nets have been erected and used by the 
* defenders (except the defender. Lord Herries) for the purpose of 
' capturing salmon and fish of the salmon kind ; and that the 
* capture of salmon and fish of the salmon kind by the said nets 
' is injurious to the rights of the pursuers ; therefore ordains the 
' defenders forthwith to remove the said nets erected and used 
* by them as aforesaid ; interdicts, prohibits, and discharges the 
' defenders, and each of them, from erecting and using stake-nets, 
* paidle-nets, or other fixed engines fitted to capture salmon or fish 
' of the salmon kind on the River Nith or estuary thereof, or on 
' the sands and shores between high and low water mark within the 
* limits aforesaid, and decerns : Finds the defenders liable in 
' expenses.' This interlocutor was not appealed, and being thus 
final, must be considered to fix the law. 
During the summer and autumn of 1890 Mr Young, the 
Inspector of Salmon Fisheries, inspected the River Oude and the 
Falls near Culfail, which prevent the ascent of salmon and sea-trout 
to a considerable extent of good angling and spawning water, and 
to a fine sheet of water called Loch Tralaig. 
At Oban he met Mr Macarthur, Clerk to the Awe District Board, 
and received from him a good deal of information concerning the 
destructive form of salmon poaching, known as ' scringing,' so 
common and so deadly in the vicinity of Oban, in the Sound of 
Mull, and in other localities on the West Coast. Mr Macarthur 
stated that the ' scringers ' have now six boats instead of eight, 
and expressed his opinion that if a steam-launch were got, main- 
tained jointly by the District Boards of the Awe and the Lochy, 
and the scringers harassed and hunted by it for one or two seasons, 
they would probably be compelled to give up their depredations. 
The Inspector agrees in this opinion. 
The Inspector afterwards visited the Falls near Ledmore Farm- 
house, a tributary of the Aros River, in the Island of Mull, which 
at present, to a great extent, prevent salmon and sea- trout from 
reaching the wide expanse of Loch Frisa, the largest sheet of 
fresh water in Mull. By an expenditure of £50 at the outside, 
these falls could be rendered perfectly accessible. 
From Mull, the Inspector proceeded to Luss on Lochlomond, and 
inspected the lower part of the Loch and the Rivers Douglas, Luss, 
and Endrick, including the Falls of Gartness on the latter. The 
sea-trout and salmon fishing on the lower part of Lochlomond was 
unusually good last summer and autumn, the sea-trout being not 
only numerous but large. This is somewhat remarkable, consider- 
