THE BLADENOCH 405 



to ascend. The water is necessarily comparatively thin and 

 quick on the downstream face, and when a fish reaches the top 

 of this it has no " take-off " to enable it suddenly to surmount 

 the abrupt sill. At the head of the pass, till a comparatively 

 recent date, as great an obstruction as the abrupt sill was 

 introduced in the form of a stout board. This was not, I 

 believe, placed across the head of the pass for the express 

 purpose of preventing fish from ascending, but in order to 

 provide more water-power to the mill. The pass, I believe, 

 does moderately well, but at the right bank, where the river 

 bed is naturally suitable, an excellent pass might without much 

 difficulty be formed. 



One other dyke exists in the Bladenoch at the Borhoise Meal 

 Mill, about a mile and a half above the junction of the Tarff. 

 It is not a formidable affair, being composed of loose boulders, 

 and varying in height from 2 to 4 feet ; but it is, or was when I 

 last saw it, extremely leaky, so that much water flowed through 

 the substance of the rough dyke instead of over the top of it. 

 A more efficient pass than formerly existed has now been 

 constructed here. 



The Tarff, as already indicated, is more seriously interfered 

 with. The three dykes are in the neighbourhood of Kirkcowan, 

 a short distance above the junction. The first is the Tarff 

 Sawmill Dyke, an irregular concrete structure of considerable 

 height, without a pass, and capable, in moderate conditions of 

 water-level, of sending all the water of the stream down the 

 lade. This structure requires modification to make it more 

 passable. Above this the next dyke is that of a wool mill. 

 It is not high, but is a serious obstruction through the great 

 abstraction of water drawn from a deep pool immediately above 

 it. The stream here is rocky, and the dyke is formed of con- 

 crete, with smooth cement facing on top of the rocks at the 

 tail of the pool. The lade is deep and capable of drawing water 

 to such an extent that in moderate conditions even a pass with 

 the statutory 6-in. slap in the sill can be left dry. 



Above this another wool mill exists, indeed the mill stands 

 on the steep bank overlooking the large pool just referred to, 

 but the dyke is quite half a mile upstream. A turbine at the 

 mill is able to receive water from a height of some 21 or 22 

 feet. Action in the Sheriff Court was taken some years ago for 



