REPORT. 



I have the honour to submit my Report for the year 1898 to the 

 Fishery Board for Scotland. 



By direction of the Board, and at the request of the provost, magis- Ay 

 trates, and councillors of the town of Ayr, I inspected the dam and 

 hecks at Overmills and the heck at the Nether Mill on 9th September, 

 for the purpose of inquiring into the condition of the structures named, 

 and their effect upon the salmon fisheries of the river. 



Overmills. — The dam dyke is 490 feet in length, has an average 

 height of about 6 feet, and an average gradient of 1 in 3. There is 

 no fish-pass, and during normal and low conditions of the river, as 

 during my visit, the dam is, in my opinion, a complete obstruction to 

 the ascent of salmon. I w*as enabled to study the fluctuations of 

 water-flow from readings of water gauges erected at the weir five 

 months before my visit. By these and by enquiries I made as to the 

 water-power necessary to drive the mill in a paying manner, I was 

 satisfied that no loss would accrue to the tenant of the mill, except 

 during extremely low conditions of the river, or when the greater part 

 of the face of the weir was dry, with the crest, in the neighbourhood of 

 the gauges, two inches above the level of the upper pool. T may state, 

 however, that several decisions of the Courts have sufficiently proved 

 that any loss which might occur by the erection of a salmon pass in 

 conformity to the requirements of the Salmon Fisheries (Scotland) Act, 

 1868, Schedule G, must be regarded as incidental to the requirements 

 of the Act. 



I made a careful examination of the whole of the weir, and of the 

 bed of the river below the weir, and I indicated to the surveyor of the 

 burgh of Ayr, whose duty it will be to carry out the erection of the 

 fish -pass, as also to the chairman and clerk of the District Fishery 

 Board, the exact position where, in my opinion, the pass should be 

 erected. At the same time I explained to the surveyor the require- 

 ments of Schedule G, and indicated what seemed to me the most 

 advantageous method of adaptation in the Overmills Dam. 



The upper heck of the mill conformed to the regulations, but the 

 lower heck was so arranged as to be readily converted into a salmon 

 trap. This, I indicated, should be modified in accordance with the 

 bye-law. 



Nether Mill or Ayr Mill. — I found the heck on the upper lade mucli 

 damaged, but constructed on a satisfactory principle. There was no 

 lower heck. The representatives of the burgh — eight of whom were 

 present, and by whom the mills are leased — raised the objection that no 

 tail-lade existed, and that, therefore, they could not be compelled to put 

 up a heck, or to construct a tail-lade for the purpose of erecting a heck. 

 The clerk of the District Fishery Board having indicated that his 

 Board did not intend to ask the Town Council to build a tail lade, I 

 took the opportunity of indicating how a heck might be conveniently 

 erected without the construction of a tail lade. 



