FISHES. 
285 
dale and Langwell rivers in Caithness join within 100 yards 
of the sea, yet the fish of the one river are rarely or never 
caught in the other.'- Such, too, is the case with the 
Ainag river, which runs into the Oykel from the Eoss- 
shire side; above their junction the Ainag fish, which 
have the reputation of being the best-shaped fish in the 
north, never pass up the Oykel. 
In the western rivers of our district salmon run later, as 
they do also in all the smaller ones which hold these fish 
(the Forss perhaps being an exception), in the west the 
first heavy flood which comes, usually about the 10th to 
15th July, bringing up great numbers. Some run in May, 
but very few are caught at that time. In July 1883 we 
rose a large salmon twice in the salt water at Loch Inver 
with a " silver doctor." 
In two rivers with which we are intimately acquainted 
this lateness of. the "run" has only been characteristic 
during the last ten to twenty years (speaking of west coast 
rivers), and there are good proofs and historical tests avail- 
able which show distinctly that increasing lateness of the 
"run" from year to year in salmon rivers generally is indi- 
cative of gradual, or of all stages of, decline and approach- 
ing extinction. This is not theoretical, but based npon 
distinct data. 
We have paid some attention to the history of certain 
salmon rivers — of Sutherland especially, and of north-west 
Eoss-shire — and have given expression to our views on the 
subject of the changes which have taken place in these rivers 
regarding the times and seasons of the runs of salmon ; but 
this is scarcely the place to enter into a discussion of this 
nature, which is better relegated to the columns of the 
Field, or to a special report. We will only direct attention 
to several articles in the September and October numbers 
of the Field for 1884, and to Mr. A. Young's "Eeport on 
1 The fish of the river Langwell were considered "the finest and best in 
Scotland " (Agricultural Survey, 1815). 
