THE EWE 291 



fellows set off to the Inveran river, a stream which enters Loch 

 Maree a short distance above the outflow of the Ewe. They speared 

 17 fish out of the river, and were back at the dance again almost 

 before they were missed. 



Sir Kenneth Mackenzie, in giving evidence before Lord Elgin's 

 Commission, explained that the cruive dyke which formerly stood 

 at what is now called " The New Cruive Pool " was never fished by 

 means of cruive boxes with inscales, and that the reason for its 

 removal in his father's time was to lower the level of Loch Maree in 

 order to prevent flooding on farms at the head of the loch. 



It is noteworthy that, since the removal of the cruive dyke, the 

 rod-fishing on the Ewe has declined. It need not be asserted 

 positively that the decline was consequent upon the removal of the 

 dyke, but that the result has been to make the floods on the Ewe 

 more severe in their scouring action in the river bed, and to facilitate 

 the uninterrupted run of fish through this short and rapid river. 



If, as has been stated by Sir Kenneth, the removal of the dyke 

 lowered the level of the loch, it seems to follow that after periods of 

 low level in the loch the presence of the dyke would act as a 

 regulator of the river flow till such time as the loch reached the 

 level of the top of the cruive dyke, and that, therefore, in spite of 

 the two gaps which probably existed in the dyke, the structure acted 

 in a modified way as an impounding dam. Spring fish were in 

 former days taken from the date of opening. Grant, the Pool House 

 keeper, informs me he has taken two fish of 8 Ib. or 10 Ib. on the 

 opening day, and that he always expected, in former years, to have 

 a fair number of fish in February and March, fishing on the four 

 days a week which are allotted to Pool House. Sometimes the 

 March fish were a little coloured. In April the Pool House rod has 

 taken as many as 24 fish. 



This speaks to a fair number of fish in or passing through the 

 river in spring. The action of the cruive dyke would be first as a 

 direct check to ascending fish, thus enabling the angler to have a 

 much longer time at his disposal to ply his art on the congregated 

 fish, and, secondly, to produce on the whole a less violent current. 

 Spring fish do not readily lie in strong broken water as summer fish 

 will often do. The total gradient of the river is roughly about 1 

 in 85. I am inclined to the view, therefore, that the cruive dyke 

 made for the better angling of the river, while it in no way reduced 

 the value of the upper water fishing in Lochs Clare and Couliu, to 

 which fish easily ascended in early summer, as they do still. 



