38 
Appendices to Ninth Annual Report 
that the whole net is close, and the ohject of the size of mesh entirely 
done away with. The river having no estuary, no fish can pass the nets, 
except in heavy floods, and the river is fished, night and day, from March, 
two nets sometimes in one stream. Owing to the miles of river netted, 
the fish, at certain times, are not able to pass the number of miles during 
the Sunday close time. Another complaint made by Mr Grant is of the 
number of parr killed by trout fishers in the Spey. 
He suggests that the watchers should be appointed solely by the upper 
proprietors and tenants. He states that spring fish are almost extinct, 
and proposes that ' both net and rod fishing should begin 1st March, and 
* that rod fishing be continued to end of October, as heavy autumn fish 
* only produce their own kind.' He alleges that ' protection is not suffi- 
' cient. Poachers, under guise of trout fishers, kill kelts (they were 
' better looked after last year). I estimate that between 300,000 and 
* 400,000 parr are killed every year by trout fishers (especially boys) on 
' the Syey and its tributaries, and no one prosecuted.' 
With regard to the hatchery which the Duke of Richmond has estab- 
lished near the sea, he remarks : — ' He will breed from late-run fish. 
' This is a mistake. They will breed fish of like habits to themselves.' 
He states that there is a great preponderance of female over male salmon 
in the Spey. He suggests that ' a general inspection of the River Spey 
* and tributaries be made, and evidence taken, including the way the 
' nets are drawn, number of fish killed by them ; the evidence of old 
* rod fishers to be taken as to the habits of salmon, their spawning, and 
* their decrease,' 
I have answers to the printed queries from Captain Dunbar Brander of 
Spey and Pitgaveny, who is lessee of the salmon fishings in the River Lossie, and 
AnTwera fron been acquainted also with the Spey fishings for many years past. 
Captain Dun- Note VI. to my Eighth Annual Report to the Fishery Board, I had 
bar Brander. the honour to point out that if the decision of the Sheriff of Elgin, finding 
that Captain Dunbar Brander had no power to prosecute for a breach of 
any Bye-law in the district of the River Lossie, 'because there is no District 
Board for that district, be correct, this result will follow — that in those 
Districts where there are no District Boards, no proprietor or lessee of 
Salmon Fisheries can prosecute for the contravention of any Bye-law — a 
most unfortunate result, when it is considered that more than half the 
fishery districts in Scotland have no District Boards. 
Captain Dunbar Brander agrees with the views expressed by Mr Grant 
about the mistake of breeding from autumn fish. He is also opposed to 
the protection of kelts. He suggests that — 
The power ^ of formirig District Boards should be altered. Take my own 
case. I rent the River Lossie from its source to its mouth, and possess fishings 
in the sea at its mouth, and another proprietor also has sea fishings. The 
owner of the river, the other proprietor of sea fishings, and myself would be 
entitled to form a Board. I offered to be at the sole expense ; all I wanted 
was the names of the other proprietors. They refused, and I am helpless. I 
can't make myself into a Board ! If I want to carry out any of the salmon 
fishery laws, I can only do it as a common informer ; and without a Board and 
a Clerk to the Board, I am powerless to punish sins of omission, I can 
punish commission. 
About breeding from autumn fish, and the preservation of kelts, he 
writes : — 
I think we make a mistake in killing every fish we can till the end of 
August, and trusting that an autumn fish, whose migratory instinct does not 
bring him into the river till September or October, will breed the fish w« 
