228 THE SALMON RIVERS OF SCOTLAND 



of the mouth by the formation of stone barriers covered with 

 cement. In Young of Invershin's time the then Duke of 

 Sutherland constructed two parallel walls as a prolongation 

 of the Shin into the junction pool. This gave rise to great 

 opposition at the time, some of the Duke's neighbours even 

 going so far as to hint that His Grace's titles were not over clear, 

 and that he was in any case endangering the right bank of the 

 Oykell mouth. The late Mr. Carnegie acquired the rights of 

 fishing in the Shin from both banks, excepting the top mile or 

 so of the river, which still goes with Lairg Lodge. The con- 

 tracting of the mouth was brought about by building in the 

 inside of the old parallel walls. The mouth was brought down 

 to, I understand, some 16 to 18 feet in order to increase the 

 current and draw fish from the Kyle. The buttresses were, 

 however, not sloped downwards towards the centre of the 

 river, so as to allow high floods to pass over them, and were 

 moreover constructed of stones not grouted in cement, but 

 only skimmed over by it. The work was completed in autumn 

 1907, and during the winter the structure yielded and was, in its 

 most central part, broken away, so that when I visited it in 

 June 1908 the mouth was about 22 feet or so. 



The original walls were, I believe, constructed for the purpose 

 of saving the banks on the Invershin side from the action of a 

 strong eddy caused by the junction of the Oykell Water. A 

 cross current still remained, but instead of reaching the banks 

 as an eddy, the action was to form a bank of gravel opposite 

 the left or down stream wall. By the contraction of the mouth 

 this cross current seemed to be accentuated. A deep spoon- 

 shaped depression occurred just outside the river mouth, 

 which shallowed at the lip of the spoon (the river between the 

 walls being the handle of the spoon) to a depth of about 

 2 feet, and the bulk of the water poured out to the left close to 

 the left wall and at right angles to it. This sideward action is 

 evidently caused by the Oykell coming in from the right, and 

 in my opinion it would best be met by shortening the right- 

 hand wall and removing on this side the contracting barrier. 

 At present the Shin cannot be said to have a good mouth. 



In the pools below Inveran converging jetties or croys from 

 both banks have been introduced in order to deepen the pools. 

 In one case the action seems successful, but in the other the 



