of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



LI 



and a fine natural waterflow allows the free ascent of fish. This 

 arrangement of dam dyke is seen also in the River Leven which 

 flows from Loch Lomond. 



There is also a Dam Dyke at the Upper Keir Mill. It starts 

 downwards from the left bank through the central arch of the rail- 

 way bridge. The height of this dyke varies from about to 5 

 feet. A gap and suitable fish pass might with great advantage be 

 formed in the portion of the dam which passes below the central 

 arch of the bridge. There is a heck on the intake of the lade on the 

 right bank but none on the tail race. 



The next obstruction is an extremely bad one, being the dam dyke 

 of what is still called Dunblane Mill. The building so called does 

 not appear to be now used as a mill but rather as a carpenter's shop. 

 The unhecked lade runs full and the water-power may still be 

 used, but the case seems to me to be one where in all probability 

 the interests of salmon fisheries might, without great difficulty, be 

 provided for. No gap or fish pass exist in the dyke, which is on 

 the average about five feet in height. These should certainly be 

 required of the owner, and in my opinion the lade should be 

 closed and the water turned over the weir when water-power is not 

 required. 



A short distance above this a small dam dyke exists for which 

 there seems no reasonable excuse. It is certainly not a serious 

 obstruction and fish should, without great difficulty, get up towards 

 the left bank, but it is a dyke with no mill or other work attached, 

 and without any lade passing off from either bank. Presumably 

 the mill in connection with which the dam dyke was to have been 

 used was never built. 



Above this is the Dam Dyke of Springbank Wool Mill, a long 

 structure which first slants upstream from the right bank and thus 

 forming an obtuse angle crosses to the opposite side, near which 

 there is a gap and short zig-zag fish ladder. The dyke is not high, 

 but the downstream face is abrupt. The gap in the sill is probably 

 useful, but the ascent of salmon would be facilitated if the zig- 

 zag steps and a boulder immediately below were removed. Owing 

 to the presence of a large gravel bank, however, a splendid pass 

 could readily be devised by the formation of a small subsidiary dyke 

 and of a pool near the left bank. The lade in this case is provided 

 with upper and lower necks. 



Two other obstructions exist in the Allan Water, viz. the 

 Ashfield Dam about two and a half miles above Dunblane, and the 

 Kinbuch Wool Mill Dam six miles above Dunblane. These 

 I had not an opportunity of visiting, but the fomer is, I understand, 

 a rather formidable dyke some seven or eight feet in perpendicular 

 height but with a pass at the right side and sluices similar to those 

 already described for the Keirfield Dam at Bridge of Allan. 



A new weir was in 1902 constructed across the Almond in the 

 District of the River Tay. The purpose of the weir is to give a 

 supply of water to an artificial loch constructed on the Bertha 

 Estate and stocked with trout. A pass has now been erected on the 

 left bank at this Bertha Dam Dyke, the plan of which was subm itted 

 to me on 2nd July by the Tay District Fishery Board. The pass is of 



