374 Appendices to Fifth Annual Report 



took place. I state it on the authority of Mr Gold, Chamberlain to 

 the Earl of Zetland, the largest proprietor in the Orkneys. It occurred 

 about thirty years ago, when a Mr Pottinger, then staying at Graeineshall, 

 caught in four hours in one forenoon, towards the end of October, 70 sea- 

 trout, ranging from 3 to 9 lbs — unquestionably a most remarkable and 

 exceptional take. Mr Sutherland Graeme of Grsemeshall has favoured 

 me with answers to my printed queries. With regard to the number of 

 fish taken in Orkney, he writes as follows : — 



I can give no idea of the number of fish taken in all Orkney. At Grsemes- 

 hall, when I used to net the bays, I have got large numbers of fine fish ; there 

 were 40 fish in one haul at St Mary's Bay. Another time at Grsemeshall 34, 

 weighing 149 lbs. I think the biggest fish in the net was 11 lbs.; biggest fish 

 to rod and fly, 1\ lbs. 



With regard to the increase or diminution of fish on his property, he 

 writes : — 



I should say the numbers of fish have not altered in the last 15 or 16 years. 

 The numbers vary, of course — good seasons and bad — but are not diminishing 

 about my bays. 



About 7 miles from Kirkwall, there is a wide and deep Bay called Deer- 

 sound, with many minor bays branching off from it. Tankerness Hall, an 

 old seat of the Baikies, an ancient Orcadian family, is on the west side of it, 

 and can show — a rare thing in Orkney — a pretty extensive grove of trees 

 and a pleasant garden. In Kirkwall Bay, in Inganess Bay, and in certain 

 localities in Deersound, there is occasionally capital sea-trout fishing, as also 

 in the Wideford Burn flowing into Inganess Bay, in which the sport in 

 the season, after a flood, is sometimes excellent. In various parts, too, 

 of the extensive Bay of Firth — known in the old Norse days as Aurridafiord 

 (Salmon Trout Firth) — there is still fair fishing to be had for sea-trout in 

 the salt water in the proper season. A good many years ago a friend of 

 mine, fishing on a fine moonlight night in the Bay of Kirkwall, near the 

 spot where the stream from the Peerie Sea flows into it, hooked a large 

 sea-trout at 11 o'clock, and landed him just as the clock of St Magnus 

 Cathedral struck 12. The fish was fully 10 lbs. weight. 



While staying at Kirkwall, I drove out to the Bay of Isbister, which is 

 just beyond the Bay of Firth, to visit Loch Brochan and the stream that 

 runs out of it into the head of the Bay. The loch is a considerable sheet 

 of water, with an area of from 50 to 60 acres. A large burn flows into it 

 and issues from it. But there is a mill at the point where the latter joins 

 the sea; and, as usual in such cases, sea-trout are never able to ascend the 

 stream to the loch. The yellow trout in the loch are said to be of good 

 quality, and to grow to a considerable size. The distance from the loch 

 to the sea is about a mile. The mill-lade, which is supplied from the loch, 

 is covered in throughout its whole course. There is a sluice, but no heck 

 or grating at the intake or tail-lade. The lade turns an overshot wheel and 

 falls in a shoot from the top of it, so that no fish could possibly reach the 

 loch by the lade. I am rather surprised, however, that no sea-trout manage 

 to ascend to the loch by the burn during the autumn floods. 



Next to Hoy, the island of Rousay, which is circular in shape, and from 

 5 to 6 miles in diameter, is the most picturesque and varied in surface 

 of the Orcadian group, containing three considerable hills — Blotchin- 

 field (811 feet), Kierfea (762), and Knitchenfield (732 feet); while hemmed 

 in by peaks and ridges, on all sides, except towards the sea, is the spacious 

 valley, near the head of which are the two lakes, termed the Meikle Water 

 and the Peerie (that is, the Little) Water, through both of which flows 

 the Sourin Burn, which probably contains a greater number of yellow 

 trout — most of them of a small size — than any other burn in the Orkneys. 



