THE GIRVAN 383 



Next year (1903) 22 salmon were caught in the river, and in autumn 

 a fair stock of spawning fish were reported. 



I understand that the pit referred to has since ceased working. 

 It is to be devoutly hoped that it will not be re-opened. 



In 1904 only 14 to 16 salmon were reported as having been 

 captured. In 1905 only 1 salmon and about 300 sea- trout were 

 taken ; so far as known. In 1906 not a single fish was reported. In 

 1907 a recovery was made to some extent, 30 salmon and 400 sea- 

 trout being recorded. An important factor in this last year was the 

 copious supply of water. The river ran high for several months. 

 Most of the fish were caught in the upper waters. 



This introduces the subject of the obstructive dam-dykes of the 

 river which, under normal conditions of water-flow, act as serious 

 hindrances to the proper recovery of this river. In passing, I may 

 say that the river nets have been removed under lease. The dam- 

 dykes are five in number, and only one of them has a fish-pass. 

 The lowest on the river is not very far out of the town of Girvan. 

 At what are known as the Bridge Mills two dams occur, but the 

 lower one is a subsidiary structure erected for the benefit of the fish, 

 on the advice of Buckland and Young. It forms a good pool below 

 the main weir, but none the less the two dykes form a material 

 obstacle to ascending fish, for, contrary to the requirements of the 

 Salmon Acts, no fish-pass is on either. A revolving heck exists on 

 the lade of the Bridge Mills, a structure devised to clear itself of 

 leaves. 



At Dailly, about five miles further up, the next weir occurs. The 

 water below this is fished in part from Killochan Castle and in part 

 by an Angling Club in Girvan who have about a mile and a half of 

 water from Killochan. Much of the club water is rather still and 

 canal-like, but nine good casts are reckoned. Dailly Dam is 4 feet 

 high, and formed, like all the dams above it, of boulders. It is, as a 

 result, both irregular in form and leaky in structure. When dam- 

 dykes leak, much valuable water percolates away under the stones, 

 and so reduces the flow for ascending fish, which have necessarily to 

 go over the sill of each weir. 



The one pass of the river, if it may be dignified by this name, is 

 at the Kilkerran Dyke, about four miles further up. It is a simple 

 wooden shoot, 17 feet long and 5 ft. 5 in. broad, reaching from the 

 sill to practically the foot of the apron. When I last saw this dyke 

 the pass was dry, the sill was dry, and the river was finding its way 

 below the weir. Considerable cavities had formed in the base of the 



