308 THE SALMON RIVERS OF SCOTLAND 



of impounding or holding up the waters of the lochs, from 

 which various streams come, was first adopted in the Long 

 Island by that splendid old sportsman, Mr. Hutchinson, who, 

 writing under the nom de plume of " Sixty- One," gives such 

 charming accounts of his life in the Lews. 1 He was the tenant 

 of Soval, and gradually improved the sporting value of the 

 place so much that at length a time came when he could no 

 longer pay the increased rent demanded. His book is well 

 worth searching for by any who are keen with rod and gun, 

 and, we may add, with dog, for " Sixty-One " dearly loved his 

 dogs. 



He had suffered, on the Blackwater river, which enters near 

 the Grimersta, from seeing fish unable to ascend, and having 

 them eventually caught by bag nets, which were then permitted 

 up near the head of Loch Roag. " In this state, then, memory, 

 not inspiration, came to my aid," he writes. " I bethought 

 me of the Costello in Galway, by whose pleasant side I had, 

 in former days, killed buckets-full of fish ; and in imitation of 

 what I had there seen practised, I dammed up Loch Dismal 

 (his name for one of the lochs from which a source of the 

 Blackwater flows). Across the mouth of this loch I erected a 

 dam and sluice similar to the common mill-dams of the country, 

 taking care, of course, not to shut the sluices so close as to run 

 the branch of the river dry. I thus kept back water enough 

 to create an artificial spate, which I let go exactly in time to 

 meet the high spring tides that bring the fish up to the rivers' 

 mouths, which they take, wind and water permitting. 



" I found the experiment answer perfectly, and over and 

 over again I ascertained to demonstration that the fish took the 

 river with my artificial, just as they would with a natural 

 spate. By judiciously keeping up a supply of water, I fresh- 

 ened up my river as it grew low, and brought up, ever and 

 anon, fresh fish." 



This experiment met with much opposition, of course. It 

 was an interference with the arrangements of nature. Gillies 

 said fish would not run in " rotten water," as they described 

 the artificial spate water ; it was not rain fresh from heaven. 

 The same sort of criticisms were made in the Helmsdale district 



1 Twenty Years' Reminiscences of the Lews. By " Sixty-One." 

 Horace Cox. 1871. 



