324 THE SALMON RIVERS OF SCOTLAND 



On the northern side of West Loch Tarbert, at the head of a 

 small secondary loch with a very long name, is a stream named 



BALLAN A' CISTE, 



which flows out of a small loch called Loch-na-Morcha, or on 

 the maps Loch a' Mhorghain. A great attempt was made here 

 in 1885 to open up the stream in order to allow sea-trout up to 

 the loch. When I mention that this loch is 469 feet above the 

 sea, and only a little more than a mile distant from the shore, 

 some idea of the gradient will be understood. If this were 

 reduced to a uniform gradient of one in twelve, it is impossible 

 to conceive fish managing to last a mile of such ascent. But 

 the incline is in part tremendously steep. The road to Storno- 

 way, which goes alongside, seems to have a much easier 

 gradient, and yet looks in parts as if this must be about one 

 in seven. Up this steep ascent, at immense cost, a tortuous 

 way was constructed for the benefit of the sea-trout. In 1886 

 it was described as a complete success, but as a matter of fact 

 it is a complete failure. Some of the embankments have now 

 burst, and the stream in part descends in its old steep channel. 

 It is a monument to the most sanguine belief in what a sea- 

 trout will climb, as well as one of the most extensive operations 

 of its kind I have ever seen. Only one other instance occurs 

 to me as worthy to compare with it, and that is the equally 

 ruinous works in the island of Rum, originally constructed by 

 the late Lord Salisbury. 



There is a famous fishing not far to the west of Ballan 

 a' Ciste. It is commonly called Avonsui (Amdhuinnsuidh). 

 Here a chain of five lochs joined by a stream called the 

 Eavat come down from a great height in a steep glen. 

 Below this the stream enters a sheltered little sea-creek 

 at the mouth of the West Loch Tarbert, opposite the north 

 end of Taransay. The lowest two lochs are very small, 

 but the loch next above, Loch Leosaidh, is about three- 

 quarters of a mile long and only 131 feet above the sea. A 

 fish-pass, formed by rock blasting, was necessary to make this 

 fishery what it is, but the gradient is comparatively easy, and 

 the fishing in the lochs above is not only first-class, but con- 

 stantly reliable. 



