THE SHIN 217 



of the mouth by the formation of stone barriers covered with 

 cement. In Young of Invershin's time the then Duke of Suther- 

 land constructed two parallel walls as a prolongation of the Shin 

 into the junction pool. This gave rise to great opposition at the 

 time, some of the Duke's neighbours even going so far as to hint 

 that His Grace's titles were not over clear, and that he was in any 

 case endangering the right bank of the Oykell mouth. Mr. Carnegie 

 acquired the rights of fishing in the Shin from both banks, excepting 

 the top mile or so of the river which still goes with Lairg Lodge. 

 The contracting of the mouth was brought about by building in the 

 inside of the old parallel walls. The mouth was brought down to, 

 I understand, some 16 to 18 feet in order to increase the current and 

 draw fish from the Kyle. The buttresses were, however, not sloped 

 downwards towards the centre of the river, so as to allow high floods 

 to pass over them, and were moreover constructed of stones not 

 grouted in cement, but only skimmed over by it. The work was 

 completed in autumn 1907, and during the winter the structure 

 yielded and was, in its most central part, broken away, so that when 

 I visited it in June 1908 the mouth was about 22 feet or so. 



The original walls were, I believe, constructed for the purpose of 

 saving the banks on the Invershin side from the action of a strong 

 eddy caused by the junction of the Oykell Water. A cross current 

 still remained, but instead of reaching the banks as an eddy, the 

 action was to form a bank of gravel opposite the left or down-stream 

 wall. By the contraction of the mouth this cross current seemed to 

 be accentuated. A deep spoon-shaped depression occurred just out- 

 side the river mouth, which shallowed at the lip of the spoon (the 

 river between the walls being the handle of the spoon) to a depth of 

 about two feet, and the bulk of the water poured out to the left 

 close to the left wall and at right angles to it. This sideward action 

 is evidently caused by the Oykell coming in from the right, and in 

 my opinion it would best be met by shortening the right-hand wall 

 and removing on this side the contracting barrier. At present the 

 Shin cannot be said to have a good mouth. 



In the pools below Inveran converging jetties or croys from both 

 banks have been introduced in order to deepen the pools. In one 

 case the action seems successful, but in the other the faulty work- 

 manship has again yielded to the water, large stones having tumbled 

 out of the structure and water allowed through, so that no alteration 

 in the water-level results. 



It is of course extremely difficult to estimate the ultimate action 



