THE BROOM 293 



rippling over gravelly shallows. Lower down the river becomes 

 more uniform in character, with a stony bed fringed by trees. 

 When it reaches the Inverbroom Bridge it is barely 20 feet 

 above sea-level, and has become almost placid in long gentle 

 pools. At the bridge the channel is close to the north side of 

 the glen, but presently it winds across to the opposite side, 

 and forms an imperfect sort of lagoon behind a great talus of 

 gravel, which has been washed by the little river Lael from the 

 northern hillside. The entire contents of this side glen seem 

 to have been poured out upon the mouth of the Broom, and not 

 only the river has been pushed over to the south side of the 

 glen, where it finds its passage to the sea, but the head of Loch 

 Broom has been in great measure shallowed and filled up. 

 The upper end of the lagoon would probably have represented 

 the head of the sea loch but for the debris from the Lael. Loch 

 Broom Church would then have stood at the head of the loch. 



Reference to the church reminds me that the minister here 

 seems to have a vested right in salmon fishing ex adverse the 

 glebe. I understand that he maintains his right by drawing a 

 net in the tidal pools of these Kirklands of Loch Broom during at 

 least a few nights each season. Netting used also to be carried 

 on in the Linn Pool, but this ceased about twenty years ago. 



As a rule, the Broom holds fish about the middle of May, 

 but in exceptional years, such as 1893 and 1896, for instance, 

 clean fish were taken on the rod on 20th March and llth March 

 respectively. Curiously enough, when the river was netted 

 for ova on three successive Decembers, two clean fish were 

 then found, and quite a number of clean sea- trout in the low 

 pools. I have referred elsewhere to the clean spring sea- trout 

 of the Grimersta. The Broom, like the neighbouring Ullapool 

 river, is not what can be called a good sea- trout stream. It is 

 the more singular, therefore, that these fickle fish should be 

 found there in December. 



The average weight of the Broom salmon is practically 10 lb., 

 but weights vary greatly. In some years the heaviest fish 

 have not exceeded 13 or 14 lb., but much more commonly the 

 weight has been over 20 lb. On several years 28 pounders 

 have been got, and the record weight, so far as I know, is 33 lb. 



The maximum annual catch is 98 salmon, but the average is 

 about 30, and I have known a minimum of 12. 



