of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 
11 
A petition signed by eighteen proprietors of salmon fishings who are upper 
heritors on the Don has been addressed to the Secretary of State, and referred 
to the Fishery Board by him, complaining of irregularities and contraventions 
of the Salmon Fisheries Act of 1862, committed especially in connection with 
the dykes and weirs on the lower j^ortion of the river and the cruive dyke 
near Gordon's mill. And likewise complaining of the impossibility of obtain- 
ing redress from the Don District Board, owing to its constitution placing the 
voting power in the hands of the lower proprietors. And since the date of that 
petition a letter has been addressed to me by the Town Clerk of Inverurie, 
stating that the Town Council of that burgh, as proprietors of salmon fishings 
on the Don, cordially support the views of the upper heritors. ' The Council,' 
they say, 'find their fishings materially injured by the cruives and other ob- 
*■ structions, and think thai if they are not entitled to have them removed, they 
' are at least entitled to have them so altered as to allow the free passage of 
' fish.' 
The manufacturers on the Don encroach in two ways on the interests of the 
salmon proprietors — first, by not having efficient salmon ladders or passes to 
permit the ascent of running fish ; and secondly, by the enormous quantity of 
water which they extract from the river through the lades in connection with 
the dams. The evidence which was given to Mr Buckland and myself, which 
is printed in the Appendix to the Reiwrt of 1871, is still true with regard to 
these dams. It is there stated — 'At present they prevent probably one-half 
' of the number of fish from ascending that would otherwise do so. Every 
' winter the fish may be seen lying below the dykes in large numbers, struggling 
' to ascend to the spawning-beds, but are forced back and destroyed with stones, 
' &c. After lying a few days they get too heavy with roe, and are unable to 
' ascend. The consequence is that they are forced to spawn where they are, 
' and the spawn never comes to maturity for want of spawning ground. In 
' consequence of the power claimed by the millowner of taking a large part, 
' or even the whole of the water, the river below the dyke is often nearly dry,' 
The following is an extract from my eighth Eeport to the Board, published 
in 1890: — 
When in Aberdeen, for the purpose of meeting the Clerks to the Dee and Muf^iemoss 
Don District Boards on the subject of the illicit traffic in salmon, I took the Dam on the 
opportunity of inspecting the dams on the Don described in my First Report River Don, 
to the Board, and was sorry to find that none of their objectionable features 
have been in any way altered or imj^roved ; the dam at Mugiemoss especially 
preserving its bad eminence as being about the worst artificial obstruction in 
Scotland. The apron of this dam is no less than 94 feet 6 inches long — a fatal 
fault, as hsh cannot swim so long a current of rapid water. When I first 
visited Mugiemoss the river was so low that I could walk across the face or 
apron of the dam. But when I inspected it in August last, the river was 
rather high, and the fish-pass on the dam was full of white foaming water, 
which no salmon could ascend ; and then, to add to the difficulty, at the top of 
this foaming torrent, there is a jump of about 3 feet before the fish can reach 
the water above. The pass is the very last place in the dam which any 
stream between the points where it is intercepted by the weir ; that the sides of the 
gap shall be in a line with and parallel to the direction of the stream at the weir ; 
that the bottom of the gaj) shall be level with the natural bed of the stream above 
and below the gaj) ; and that the width of the gap in its narrowest part 'shall be not 
less than one-tenth part of the width of the stream, provided always that such gup 
shall not be re(pured to be wider than 40 feet, and shall not, in any case, he narrower 
than 3 feet. 
The Irish Salmon Fishery Acts contain similar regulations with regard to free 
gaps in tishing weirs ; and there is also a provision that no person shall place any 
ohstruction, use any contrivance, or do any act whereby fish may be seared, 
deterred, or in any way prevented from freely entering and i»assing up and down a 
free gap at all periods of the year, or shall use any nets or other engines within 50 
yards above or l)elow any free gaj) ; and any person jdaeing any obstrnetion, using 
any contrivance, net, or engine, or doing any act in contravention of the regulation 
last herein hefore contained shall incur a ])enalty, not less than £5 and not exceeding 
£20 for the iirst olfence, and not less than £10 and not exceeding £50 for each sub- 
sequent oHence. 
