The Salmon Rivers and Lochs of Scotland
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lu KtN 1 jVDyumuititifi imn ftsc 4i iti i s m ftul)!ii.tti'n.'ivi.)iH^\H! I IE SALMON RIVERS AND LOCHS OF SCOTLAND W. L, GALDERWOOD THE SALMON RIVERS AND LOCHS OF SCOTLAND BY W. L. CALDERWOOD, F.R.S.E. AUTHOR OF " THE LIFE OF THE SALMON," ETC. SECOND EDITION, REVISED ILLUSTRATED WW Wi ^if I' LONDON EDWARD ARNOLD & CO. 1921 [All rights reserved] PREFACE In preparing a second edition of this book, I have endea- voured to embody an account of such altered conditions as have come into being since 1909, when the book first appeared. It happens that, especially in the north of Scotland, many rivers have changed hands, for the War has had its influence upon even the peaceful sport of salmon fishing. Some of the changes have not materially altered matters or caused any modification in the fishings ; and this is especially the case where tenants of long standing have now become proprietors. But in other instances an entirely new order of things has transpired. The rivers indeed flow on as before, but the anglers, aye and the ghillies one used to know upon the banks, the men who loved these scenes as all true Scotsmen love the land of their fathers, now lie in France or Gallipoli, or in even more distant graves. The records of catches in recent years have not always been easy to obtain, yet have been secured as far as possible. I desire here to thank all those who have so kindly assisted me in this way. Where records up to 1920 have not been available, former catches have been allowed to remain as indicative of angling value. At the same time I have embodied the various notes given me by those who, after reading the book in its earlier form, were good enough to add to or correct former record^. If, in making suggestions here and there as to how particular fishings might be improved, I lay myself open to the criticism that I am dealing unasked with the property of others, I VI PREFACE can only plead that for over twenty years I have been occupied in supervising the salmon fisheries of Scotland, and that one comes to view each individual fishing as a valuable contri- butory part of a larger whole in which one's interest seems never to diminish. W. L. C. South Bank, EDINBirEGH. September, 1921. CONTENTS I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX X XI XII XIII XIV XV XVI XVII XVIII XIX XX XXI XXII xxm VUl CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE XXIV Streams of the Outer Isles and of Skye 307 XXV MoRAR, Shiel 328 XXVI LocHY, Spean, Roy, and Aekaig . 339 XXVII Awe, Etive, and Add . .351 XXVIII Rivers of Clyde Area : Leven and Loch Lomond, Echaiq and Loch Eck, Rtjbl 373 XXIX Ayr, Doon, Girvan, and Stinchar . 385 XXX The Solway Rivers : Litce, Bladenoch, Cree, Fleet, Urr, and Dee. 402 XXXI NiTH AND Annan 421 Index 435 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS The Dee at Balmoral Frontispiece The Tweed at Ga;lafoot Facing page 30 The Croy Pool, Upper Tay „ „ 70 The Lyon, above Fortingal „ 86 The South Esk at Kinnaird „ 108 The Spey at Arndilly .... „ 154 Bacterial Filter and Hatchery, Coleburn Distillery ...... „ 160 The Findhorn at Darnaway „ 166 Plan of the Fish Pass on the River Moriston Page 181 The Invermoriston Pass, from bottom of Cutting (water turned off) . .Facing page 182 The Dog Pool, Inverness- shire Garry . ,, „ 188 The Cruive Dyke of the Beauly . „ „ 202 A Cruive in fishing order. River Conon . ,, ,, 210 The Record Day's Catch for one rod, Grimersta (54 Salmon) . • „ „ 316 The Mouth of the Shiel . „ „ 336 The Awe at the Pass of Brander . ,, „ 354 A Yair Net in the Estuary of Solway Dee, low tide ......,,„ 418 MAPS The Tweed (4 maps) THE SALMON RIVERS AND LOCHS OF SCOTLAND INTRODUCTORY It is difficult at first to realise that our mountains have been made by our rivers, yet such seems to be the literal truth. When the geologist restores the country, in imagination, to its earliest condition, he sees it as a great plateau of more or less uniform height. He finds the main axis lies in a north- east and south-west direction, and from this the water has run off chiefly in transverse courses. Through process of time, in which " a thousand years are but as yesterday," the erosion eats back from the mouths of the water channels towards the main divide, and rivers begin to show the characters we now recognise ; the lower courses through the wide open valleys, the upper courses stDl descending from considerable heights. AU our Scottish mountains of any importance are of more or less similar height. We have no towering peaks as in Switzerland. Our hill-tops represent, in a somewhat modified degree, the surface of our old plateau. Our rivers and glaciers have scooped out the valleys so as to form the hills, and have sculptured the face of our beautiful country. On top of the old rocks lie, or at one time lay, great depths of sandstones, which have evidently filled up our early valleys. To account for this and other features it is necessary, geologists teU us, to understand that the old and already much eroded plateau sank beneath the waves, and that the sand was thus laid down, so that when the country again emerged from the waters the plateau formation was practically restored. Twice, therefore, have the rivers become formed and twice have our hills and valleys come into being. The more recent valleys did not necessarily follow the former courses ; water did not 1 A 2 THE SALMON RIVERS OF SCOTLAKD always eat down into the old channels or keep to more than parts of the old channels. Ice carried great masses of boulders and debris, made huge banks here and overturned obstacles there. Those causes are responsible for the fact that the main watershed of the country frequently shows no connection with the geological structure, wanders about, as it were, in total disregard of it. A glance at a map of a watershed shows how near to the Atlantic seaboard the line keeps in the north of Scotland, and how impossible it is therefore that the rivers in the north-west can be of any great size. With the first sweep eastwards of the line we have the presence of the largest rivers of the Western Central Highlands, the Lochy, the Spean, and the Awe. With the passage of the line into the Lowlands we have the large river Clyde, still, alas, barred to salmon by the pollutions of Glasgow, pollutions which, under the enlightened modern treatment now in course of development, are steadily diminishing. The eastern side of the watershed line contains the great majority of the leading salmon rivers of the country, since the courses of the rivers are longer, and in great measure free from natural obstructions in the shape of waterfalls. The Spey and the Tay are each a hundred miles long. The Dee and Tweed are almost that length, while the Eindhorn, Deveron, Don, and Forth foUow closely. In the last mentioned the requirements of man have to a considerable extent interfered with the arrangements of nature, for Glasgow has carried off an enormous quantity of water which under normal conditions should have found its way to the eastern seaboard. A proposal for a similar transference of water to the west coast, in the interests of a commercial undertaking, was frustrated by the salmon fishing interests of the Tay. This question of water supply, either for domestic and industrial purposes or for power, is one which is bound to bulk more largely as our population increases and our enterprise extends. Projects of considerable magnitude are constantly being laid in the industrial incubator. The huge operations at Kinloohleven have been established for years and other schemes are taking shape in other parts of the country. The very high value of salmon fisheries is often growled against by angling INTRODUCTOEY 3 tenants, but this very factor is the one of all others which safeguards our stock of fish in certain districts. If the fishings were not of very great value, water rights would more easily be obtained, and, as a Scotsman is reported to have said in evidence before a Salmon Fisheries Commission, " It's a weel kent fac' in oor country that where there's nae water there can be nae fush." Pollution is another danger which threatens salmon fisheriesj In the thinly populated country districts, notably in the High- lands, this question does not trouble, and is not likely to trouble. In the Lowlands, however, and wherever the modern tendency of our population to congregate in towns obtains, the danger of pollution becomes greater every day. The various reports of the Sewage Disposal Commission are most illuminating reading as to the complex character of many of the efiluents which have to be combated. As a Scotsman deahng only with Scottish salmon rivers, I am devoutly thankful that we have nothing approaching what is reported as characteristic of many rivers in the Midlands of England. The chemists of the Commission just referred to have, however, produced most substantial arguments and demonstrations in favour of bacterial methods of purification. In Scotland the methods have been applied to the extremely toxic bye-products of whisky-making with marked success. In the account of the Spey a description will be found of a severe test made upon salmon eggs and fry with the purified pot ale from the Commission's bacterial filter at Coleburn Distillery.