22 
Appendices to Ninth Annual Report 
The Falls of Orrin are about 4 miles above the junction of the Orrin and 
the Conon. The Meag river, a stream somewhat smaller than the Orrin, 
joins the Conon on the left bank, a little below the Falls of Conon. 
Salmon get freely up this stream, and a considerable number are captured 
in it every year by the rod. Both the Orrin and the Meag have lochs at 
their sources. Salmon do not take the fly well, either in the grand pool 
below the Falls of Orrin, or in that below the Conon cruives. 
Mr Stirling leases the Brahan Salmon Fishings on the Conon, including 
the cruives ; and as the cruives have been kept open all the year, the 
river above is now full of sahnon. The mouth of the river is netted by 
Messrs Powrie & Pitcaithly of Perth, who have a day and night shot. 
The Water-baililf told me that they formerly had the Brahan fishings, and 
worked them so, both my means of the cruives and by the sweep-net in 
the pool below the cruives, that the river above had not a chance till the 
netting season was over. 
Water-bailiff's The Water-bailiff came from Tweedside to the Conon five years ago, and 
opinion as to j^g crav j me his opinion as to what had caused the immense increase of 
1)116 C3rXlSG Oi • 
the great in- bull-trout in the Tweed of late years, so that they now outnumber the 
crease of Bull- salmon and grilse in the river put together. According to him, this 
Tweed^irwe iiicreas^ in the number of bull-trout has arisen from the change in the 
1857. netting close season, instituted by the Tweed Fisheries Act of 1857. 
Previously to the passing of that Act, the netting season extended to the 
middle of October, instead of the middle of September as fixed by the 
Act of 1857. The bull-trout, he says, do not come into the Tweed in 
any considerable numbers until the middle of September, and the chief 
take of them used to be between the middle of September and the middle 
of October, when it is now illegal to take them. Then, too, according to him, 
the run of the largest salmon of the season was subsequent to the 15th 
of September. All capture by nets after that date being now done away 
with, the result has been, in his opinion, the immense increase of the bull- 
trout. 
Inspection of On the 25th August, I made an inspection of the Falls of the Conon, 
Falls of Conon. below Loch Luichart, driving up by Brahan, Fairburn, Scatwell, &c., to 
where the road terminates close to the river, about \\ miles from the 
falls. I crossed the river in a ferry-boat, and then walked up to the 
falls. When I formerly made my inspection, I was on the left bank of the 
river; now I was on the right bank. About 100 yards or so below the 
main Fall, from which it is separated by a deep black pool, there is a lesser 
Fall, perpendicular and impassable on the left bank. But, on the right 
bank, there is a sort of natural salmon ladder, which might be deepened 
and improved, and the top of the more precipitous part blasted off*. Without 
something of this kind being done, it is doubtful whether salmon would 
be able to reach the foot of the main Fall. During my inspection, the 
river was full — just subsiding after a flood — and the appearance of tlie 
Falls was magnificent, especially on the left side, where a great wave of 
tawny-coloured water was rolling over a precipitous rock. 
Above the main Fall, and between it and Loch Luichart, there is 
another Fall, about 9 feet high, round which it is proposed in Mr 
Paterson's plan to carry a ladder. 
Loch Ousie. Conon district there is a loch called Loch Ousie, from which a 
burn runs into the Cromarty Firth ; this loch is at present full of pike. 
But it is proposed to exterminate the pike, and stock it with trout. I 
suggested dynamite ; but it has been tried and has failed. The late Mr 
Buckland held that the best way to get rid of pike was to shoot or other- 
wise destroy them, when they go up shallow streams and ditches in the 
spawning season. The Conon Water-bailiff, who has had a good deal of 
experience of hang-nets in the English Tyne, thinks that the use of hang- 
