CHAPTER XLVIII 



THE BROOM 



Drains thirty-seven square miles of very steep country, and, rising 

 partly in the Dirrie hills of Braemore "Forest and partly in those 

 of Fannich Forest, its two chief streams flow from Loch Droma, 

 in Braemore, and from Loch Bhraoin, on the Dundonnell property ; 

 their junction forms the Broom proper, and from here it has a run 

 through the Braemore property of Sir John Fowler of about five 

 miles to the salt water at the head of Loch Broom. The Loch 

 Droma branch flows for nearly a mile through a remarkably grand 

 rift in the rocks, with perpendicular walls some two hundred feet 

 in height, while near the top of this chasm the river falls that 

 distance in one sheer leap. At the end of this wonderful natural 

 cutting the Loch Bhraoin branch joins on, and in the following 

 five miles there are about twenty good salmon pools, a few of them 

 being artificial ones made with much skill and at considerable 

 expense. Indeed, no river on the West Coast has been better 

 preserved in every respect than the one now under discussion ; 

 and yet, in spite of all the care and the money spent on it by the 

 first baronet, the late Sir John Fowler, and again by his son, the 

 Broom does not produce one-tenth or even one-twentieth of the 

 fish it used to yield before the foreshores of Loch Broom became 

 studded \\dth bag-nets. 



In the Fishery Board Report for 1884, Mr. Young quotes a 

 letter written to him by a gentleman who had known the river for 

 sixty years, and he \vrites as follows : — 



" When I began fishing in the Broom in early days there was 

 no restriction. Every one fished both with rod and spear. The 

 rivers were swarming with fish, and on the Broom, when in good 

 trim, I could get from eight to a dozen fish a day with the rod. 

 With the spear I have taken sixty in a day, and could have got more. 

 This would be about 1820, and I have not the least doubt that the 

 bag-nets are the sole cause of the scarcity of fish in the rivers here, 

 along with poaching with trawls on the coasts at night." 



I have ascertained that this letter to Mr. Young was written by 

 Mr. Mackenzie of Morefield, who was factor to Mr. Hay Mackenzie, 

 the father of the third Duchess of Sutherland. 



Lad_v Fowler — who has also kindly lent me the negatives of 

 her excellent photographs of the Broom — tells me she often heard 

 of the sport had by Mr. Mackenzie and old Mr. Davidson of TuUoch, 



