THE LOCHY 333 



reservation. For all purposes, therefore, the Canal Commissioners 

 are the owners of the artificial upper part of the river Lochy. 

 They are at the same time, I understand, owners of the road bridge 

 which crosses the channel above the fall of Mucomer. 



The old junction of the Spean with the Lochy may still be 

 clearly made out close to the canal bank, at the bend of the river 

 below Gairlochy. The new water-course was cut considerably to 

 the east, and joins the river Spean at Mucomer Pool. Between 

 Mucomer and the old junction has now to be considered as part of 

 the river Lochy rather than part of the Spean. 



From the old junction to Loch Lochy by the original river was a 

 distance of about three-quarters of a mile, with an easy gradient 

 and uninterrupted channel. Without question the spring fish of 

 the Lochy ascended through the old channel to the loch instead of 

 turning off into the colder waters of the Spean. It was therefore 

 only after the making of the new water- course that spring fish 

 accumulated in Mucomer Pool. The water flowing from a large 

 loch like Loch Lochy may be considered without dubiety to be 

 similar to water from Loch Ness and Loch Awe, which have been 

 carefully tested 1 and have been found to be in winter and spring 

 invariably warmer than the waters from tributaries draining from 

 land unfed by large lochs. In these comparatively warm waters 

 spring fish readily ascend, provided no serious obstruction stops 

 their swimming upwards. On meeting with a sudden influx of cold 

 water, ascent is stopped. Hence early Ness fish accumulate in Loch 

 Oich and afterwards in the lower Garry, and Lochy fish now con- 

 gregate in Mucomer Pool. Such spring fish, even without the 

 influx of a cold tributary, are, in Scotland, completely checked by 

 falls, which at a later time in the season, when summer conditions 

 of water temperature obtain, would be but slight and temporary 

 barriers. In this way we see all the Helmsdale early fish remaining 

 below the small fall at Kildonan, about eleven miles up the river, 

 Orchy fish remaining below the Orchy Falls, Loch Tay fish remain- 

 ing below the Dochart Falls. 



When the new water-course for the upper Lochy was cut, the 

 Commissioners were allowed to create the Mucomer Fall, and now 

 we see the early Lochy fish remaining below this fall and, at the 

 same time, refusing to continue their ascent in the Spean (in the 



1 " Water Temperature in Relation to the Early Annual Migration of Salmon 

 from the Sea to Rivers in Scotland." Twenty -first Annual Report Fishery Board for 

 Scotland, Part ii. Appendix v. 



