of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 
11 
Richard Franck, in his Northern Memoirs (1694), speaks of it as — 
The memorable Aiiderwick, a rapid river of strong and stiff streams, whose 
fertile banks refresh the borderer, and whose fords, if well examined, are 
arguments to convince the angler of trout, as are her deeps, when consulted, 
the noble race and treasure of salmon, or demonstrate his ignorance in the art 
of angling. 
In the account of the parish of St Ninians in the Old Statistical Account 
of Scotland^ there is mentioned * the water of Endrick, famous for its 
' trouts.' The trout fishing in the Endrick and many of its tributaries is 
still excellent, but the salmon fishing has greatly fallen off. 
There is a considerable natural obstruction on the Endrick at Gartness, 
about 7 miles in a straight line from the mouth of the river, but probably 
double that distance following the course of the stream, which, after it 
enters the parish of Buchanan, flows, in beautiful curves and windings, 
through the fertile haughs of Buchanan and Kilmaronock, till it joins 
Loch Lomond. 
At Gartness, the channel of the Endrick, for about a quarter of a mile Falls at Gart- 
is scooped out of the solid rock, and the vexed waters have to force their iiess. 
way over a series of precipices. When I inspected the falls the river was 
low, so that I had a good opportunity of studying their character. They 
are formed by a series of ledges of rock stretching across the stream, and 
varying in height from 10 to 5 feet. There is a large, dark, circular 
pool below the falls, in some places 20 feet deep. The lowest part of 
the rocks is at about the centre of the river. But here there is a project- 
ing ledge overhanging the pool below, so that salmon, in attempting to 
get up, knock their heads against this and fall back. This ledge and 
another close to it should certainly be blasted off. I saw several 
salmon and sea trout rising in the pool below the falls ; and the miller 
who has the mill on the right bank, and Gordon, the river watcher, told 
me that, in the back end of the season, there are sometimes hundreds of 
salmon in the pool — big fish, from 15 to 30 lbs. — vainly striving to 
surmount the falls. There are a dozen miles of good angling and spawn- 
ing water between Gartness and the * Loup of Fintry,' from which salmon 
are thus excluded. At the ' Loup of Fintry ' the Endrick falls over a 
nearly perpendicular rock, 60 feet in height, which, of course, entirely 
bars the farther progress of fish. 
At Gartness, the chief fall is on the left bank of the river. It is 7 or 
8 feet in height, and there is a heavy body of water coming down even 
when the stream is low. Rather more than half way up there is a large, 
flat ledge of rock, which the salmon often reach in attempting to get over, 
but they almost always fall back. Possibly, if a resting pool were 
excavated in this ledge, salmon might reach it, and from it jump into the 
water above the falls. It would be a great improvement to blast out the 
rock above this flat ledge. 
A subsidiary dam might be formed across the narrowest part of the 
river below the pool beneath the fall, so as to raise the water on the 
face of the falls. But the objection to this is, that such a subsidiary dam 
would force back the water on the tail-lade and the wheel belonging to 
the mill on the right bank of tlie river, and so interfere with the miller's 
rights. 
I was informed that the proi)rietors of the falls at Gartness are Mr 
Govan of Park and Mr Blackburn of Killearn. 
The falls at Gartness are graphically described as follows in the Old Statistical 
Account: — The pot of Gartness in the water of Endrick has, tor its ])eauty and 
ingularity, always attracted the attention of strangers. It is a deep linn 
