of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



253 



APPENDIX N. 

 SALMON FISHERIES. 



MR. CALDERWOOD'8 REPORT. 



Fishery Board for Scotland, 

 kfril 1915. 



I have the honour to report upon my inspections, etc., in 1914. 



Forth. 



In the past year, the City of Glasgow made application for an Order 

 to impound the waters of Lochs Voil and Doine in this district, for 

 the purpose of securing an additional supply of water through Loch 

 Katrine, from which loch their culverts are already constructed to 

 Glasgow. Some 72,000,000 gallons are or can be at present taken daily 

 from Loch Katrine, while, by powers secured in 1885, a supply up to 

 110,000,000 gallons may be delivered. 



As Lochs Voil and Doine lie in a separate valley from Lochs Katrine 

 and Vennacher, an extensive engineering feat was proposed, by which 

 a tunnel was to be constructed through the hill which separates the one 

 valley from the other. A dam 45 ft. high was to be erected at the outlet 

 of Loch Voil, the effect of which would have been to obliterate completely 

 the separation between the two lochs, and thus to restore the post-glacial 

 conditions of the valley. 



From Loch Voil, the little river Balvaig flows through Strathyre into 

 Loch Lubnaig, from which again, through the Pass of Leny, the water 

 descends to form the Teith after confluence with the water from liOch 

 Vennacher in the other valley. 



Before the operations of Glasgow in 1855 and 1885, the two branches 

 of the river Teith and their lochs were of very considerable value for 

 salmon fishing. Loch Vennacher on the one branch, and Loch Lubnaig 

 on the other were the spring fishing lochs of the district. It is safe to 

 say that if the natural conditions had continued to the present day, when 

 so great value is placed upon salmon angling, these lochs would have been 

 in high repute. 



With the abstraction of water to Glasgow, and with the steadily- 

 growing requirements of that large city, the value of the salmon fishings 

 in the whole of the Forth district became impaired, and the possibility 

 of any salmon fishing in Lochs Vennacher and Katrine practically came 

 to an end. Salmon passes were erected by Glasgow at very considerable 

 cost at the Loch Vennacher outlet (which have been described in the 

 26th Annual Report), but the reduction in the water flow no doubt 

 accounted in some degree, as well as the unusual manner in w^hich the 

 sluices work, for the slight success which seemed to follow in ascending 

 fish. The Loch Katrine dam had also a large pass erected at it, but I 

 understand that salmon were never seen in it or in the loch above. 



The proposal of Glasgow, in 1914, in connection with the lochs of the 



