THE SHIN 215 



Shin, it is less liable to sudden fluctuations of level, and is also, we 

 may safely presume arguing from analogous cases from which 

 thermometric data are available of higher temperature during the 

 early months of the year, than the other rivers of the Kyle district. 



Loch Shin is 17 miles long, and receives water at its head from 

 Lochs Merkland and Griania. It is never broader than a mile, and 

 lies in a N.W. and S.E. direction. The mean breadth is half a 

 mile, which is a smaller percentage of breadth to length than any 

 other loch in Scotland, except Loch Shiel. It covers an area of 

 8J square miles, and drains an area of 150 square miles. The 

 greatest depth found by the Bathymetrical Survey was 162 ft., 

 the mean depth was ascertained to be 51 ft. The surface is 270 

 ft. above sea level, and the rise and fall amounts to about 7 ft. 



Salmon enter Loch Shin in numbers and spawn away up in the 

 head streams around Loch Merkland, and also in the Tirry, which 

 enters the loch from the north-west, not far from Larig a rough 

 stony stream but for salmon fishing purposes Loch Shin is of 

 little use. An occasional fish is taken by sportsmen trolling for 

 large trout (usually termed " ferox "), but Loch Shin cannot be called 

 a salmon-fishing loch. In this respect it is like all other Scottish 

 lochs with obstructed spring rivers flowing out of them. By the 

 time salmon are able to ascend, they are no longer " taking fish " in a 

 loch. The fish, say, of Loch Tay or Loch Ness, run through the 

 river in December and January and later. By the time Shin fish will 

 leap at the fall, they are also doing so, and are moving on to their 

 top waters, the Dochart and Upper Garry respectively. Salmon 

 do not take in Loch Dochart or Loch Garry any more than they do 

 in Loch Shin, or Loch Lochy, or Loch Garve, or Loch Morar. 1 If 

 the obstruction in the spring river is removed spring fish will travel 

 on, but not otherwise. So long, therefore, as the falls of Shin 

 remain, salmon need not be fished for in the loch. 



In a case such as that of the river Shin the complete removal of 

 the falls would, in my opinion, be a doubtful benefit. The river is 

 very short, and from a sporting point of view fish might pass through 

 it rather rapidly. It is not a case of letting fish up to a long mile- 

 age of river with good spawning ground. The Shin is only about 

 six miles in length, and two miles of water are below the fall. 



From the mouth to below the island where the old cruives used 

 to be, at Inveran the river has an open character, with stony and 



1 In this connection the account of early alterations in the Lochy District may be 

 of interest. 



