THE HELMSDALE 227 



our salmon is the great increase of land drainage. In the Helms - 

 dale, as in other districts, this was felt to have brought about an 

 alteration in the old flow of the river; the rainfall was more 

 quickly carried off, floods came down rapidly, but they lasted a 

 much shorter time, and consequently fish had much shorter periods 

 of good running water. In impounding the head waters, an attempt 

 was made to restore to the river the advantage of the old slow 

 drainage of the hill land. Mr. Frank Sykes, who has the longest 

 acquaintance with the river of any tenant, writes to me as follows on 

 this subject : " The object we had most in view was to have such a 

 reserve of water that we could keep the river at such a height that 

 it would be possible for fish to run up at any time during the 

 summer months. . . . We realised that sometimes fish could not 

 run from the sea, nor in some cases from pool to pool for weeks 

 together ; and it was to try to secure a share of every run of fish 

 which came on the coast, and to keep the fish that were already in 

 the river healthy that we impounded the water. Of course, the 

 summer fishing has wonderfully improved, and no one is more 

 pleased than I am about it." 



The original level of Loch-an-Ruathair was 415 feet, and all 

 through summer it is -still at its natural level. The height of 

 Badanloch above the sea was originally 392 feet. The junction of 

 the streams from these lochs, at Kinbrace, is about 330 feet above 

 the sea. 



I confess I do not admire the kind of salmon pass erected at 

 either darn dyke, but the type conforms to the requirements of the 

 Salmon Acts, and fortunately in this instance does not require to be 

 very serviceable since, at the close of the fishing season, the sluices 

 are opened, and fish are enabled to reach the high spawning grounds 

 as they formerly did. 1 



Since in dealing with the Helmsdale mention must necessarily be 

 made of the storing of head waters, I must follow the question up 

 by giving such statistics as are available to show the result of 

 these operations. At the same time it must not be lost sight of 

 that the removal of nets is also largely responsible for the benefit. 

 The combination seems to act in this way, that while the cessation 

 of netting allows more fish to enter the river, the action of the 

 artificial floods induces the fish to rise more freely to the fly the 



1 A description of the Badanloch Dam Dyke and Pass, with a plan and section, is 

 given in 23rd Annual Report Fishery Board for Scotland, Part ii. Appendix v. This 

 dyke was subsequently heightened 3 feet. 



