of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



241 



with grass, the site of a cottage or small house was clearly to be seen, the 

 foundations and some of the floor space being still uncovered by the grass. 

 A house of two storeys, standing in a garden, and, at the time of my visit, 

 the last house on the right side of the road as ones leaves Thurso by this 

 road, was exactly opposite the site of the cottage foundations indicated. 

 Mr. Dunbar has been in Thurso since 1865, and informed me that the Toll 

 House certainly stood on the site indicated till some years after 1868, and 

 that it was pulled down because it interfered with the view from a house 

 built behind it, on the south, and, further, that the stones of the old Toll 

 House were used in building the house behind it. 



As the upshot of the dispute in question, the tenant agreed to remove 

 the innermost of the four bag-nets which he had erected close to the 

 western boundary of the estuary. 



The same tenant has the right of sweep netting in the estuary, 

 so long as he does not fish between the pier at the entrance of the 

 river and the Castle. I went round to this eastern side of the estuary and 

 saw two shots drawn by net ancJ coble. The tenant uses two motor cobles, 

 one on this eastern side and the other at Scrabster. In my experience 

 these are the first motor salmon cobles in Scotland. 



Don. 



On 21st December 1901, judgment was given in the Court of Session 

 in the case of the Earl of Kin tore and others against Messrs, Alex. Pirie 

 & Sons, Ltd., paper manufacturers. The action had been pending in the 

 Courts for two years, and was of the utmost importance to proprietors of 

 salmon fishings in this district. The action dealt mainly with the 

 abstraction of water at Stoneywood and Waterton dykes, and the 

 consequent injury to the salmon fisheries of the pursuers. Lord Kyllachy 

 found that not less than 36,000 cubic feet of water were abstracted at 

 Stoneywood, and that this substantially injured the salmon fisheries. The 

 action was reclaimed asrainst, but ultimately Messrs. Pirie were compelled 

 to alter their intake, their lades, and their weirs. An agreement was come 

 to, and a Provisional Order, the River Don (Salmon Fisheries) Provisional 

 Order, 1910, was passed, providing for various works not only at Stoney- 

 wood and Waterton, but also at Mugiemoss, the dyke of Messrs. Davidson, 

 immediately below, action with regai'd to Mugiemoss having been under- 

 stood from the first, and only pending the final settlement with Messrs. 

 Pirie. 



As a result, Waterton dyke, the lower of Messrs. Pirie's dykes, has been 

 done away with, or at least cut down in part to the level of the bed of the 

 river. No water is now drawn from the river at this point ; Stoneywood 

 dyke has been provided with a new pass, and Mugiemoss dyke has also 

 been provided with a new pass. The last is most impor tant to the river, 

 since Mugiemoss was undoubtedly the most serious obstruction to the ascent 

 of fish. 



Stoneywood pass has now been constructed close to the right bank, and 

 is formed of three pools. The pass is 15 feet wide ; the pools are practically 

 square, and are 3 feet deep. The sides are strengthened by angle steel in 

 the concrete, and the lower end by steel piles. There is no aperture in the 

 steps of each pool. The pass has in future to be kept running full at all 

 times, and only subject to this condition can Messrs. Pirie draw from the 

 river 11,000 cubic feet of water. The abstraction of water is now also 

 through an oiifice of fixed dimensions, and no more water may be drawn 

 off from the river, during a rise in level, till 6| inches of water are 

 passing over the sill of the dyke. This condition has been ingeniously and 

 automatically secured by the construction of a longitudinal spill weir in 

 the lead behind the fixed orifice. 



