STREAMS OF THE OUTER ISLES AND SKYE 299 



the Lewis. 1 He was the tenant of Soval, and gradually improved 

 the sporting value of the place so much that at length a time came 

 when he could no longer pay the increased rent demanded. His 

 book is well worth searching for by any who are keen with rod and 

 gun, and, we may add, with dog, for " Sixty-One " dearly loved his 

 dogs. 



He had suffered, on the Blackwater river, which enters near the 

 Grimersta, from seeing fish unable to ascend, and having them 

 eventually caught by bag nets, which were then permitted up near 

 the head of Loch Eoag. " In this state, then, memory, not inspira- 

 tion, came to my aid," he writes. " I bethought me of the Costello 

 in Galway, by whose pleasant side I had, in former days, killed 

 buckets-full of fish ; and in imitation of what I had there seen 

 practised, I dammed up Loch Dismal (his name for one of the lochs 

 from which a source of the Blackwater flows). Across the mouth of 

 this loch I erected a dam and sluice similar to the common mill- 

 dams of the country, taking care, of course, not to shut the sluices 

 so close as to run the branch of the river dry. I thus kept back 

 water enough to create an artificial spate, which I let go exactly in 

 time to meet the high spring tides that bring the fish up to the 

 rivers' mouths, which they take, wind and water permitting. 



" I found the experiment answer perfectly, and over and over 

 again I ascertained to demonstration that the fish took the river 

 with my artificial, just as they would with a natural spate. By 

 judiciously keeping up a supply of water, I freshened up my river 

 as it grew low, and brought up, ever and anon, fresh fish." 



This experiment met with much opposition, of course. It was an 

 interference with the arrangements of nature. Gillies said fish 

 would not run in " rotten water," as they described the artificial 

 spate water ; it was not rain fresh from heaven. The same sort of 

 criticisms were made in the Helmsdale district when damming 

 operations were carried out there. But in both places the damming 

 has been a distinct success. The operations on the Blackwater were 

 ultimately so widely acknowledged as successful, that similar opera- 

 tions were carried out on neighbouring lochs. The Grimersta had a 

 dyke, as it is called in Scotland, or a dry-stone wall, as it would be 

 called in England, thrown across the outlet of each of its lochs. 

 These form only very imperfect impounding walls, but are found to 

 be sufficient. No sluices are used, even at Loch Langabhat, which 

 is 7J miles long, although here at one time a grating was in exist- 



1 Twenty Years' KeminiHcences of the Lews. By " Sixty-One. Horace Cox. 1871. 



