242 



Appendices to ThirUj- first Annual Report 



Stoueywootl dyke will no longer, I think, ])revent the ascent of salmon. 



1 have repeatedly had occasion to refer to Mugiemoss dyke. It may be 

 recollected that the obstruction was here so great that in the autumn, when 

 the river was crowded with fish, the watchers had to exercise extraordinary 

 vigilance, night and day, at this spot, and that on several occasions the 

 water carts of Aberdeen were brought out, filled with salmon, and the fish 

 carted above the various obstructions in this part of the lower river. 



The old pass at Mugiemoss was in the form of a simple chute, the dyke 

 was (and is) high, and the apron liad been built up flat and covered with 

 smooth cement, the result being that fish ascending from the deep Saugh 

 Pool below the dyke, and traversing the flat cement table-like apron, where 

 the water was swift and shallow, found themselves unable to make any 

 headway up the chute, the rapid water of which descended at the apex of 

 the flat area. I give below a sketch plan of the old arrangement at this 

 dyke. 



The new pass has been fprmed by the construction of a subsidiary dyke 

 at the foot of the flat area, so as to raise the level of the water and check its 

 force, by forming a wider pass into the pool thus created, and by constructing 

 a new and similarly wide pass in the down-stream face of the old dyke, 

 care being taken that the water descending from the river above into the 

 pool did not immediately find its way out in a direct rush through the pass 

 in the subsidiary dyke. The general arrangement may be appreciated from 

 the first of the two sketch plans. 



Each pass is 12 feet wide. The upper pass is, measuring along the 

 centre, 75 feet long, and the rise from the surface of the pool is 3 feet. 

 The pool itself is 4 feet deep. The lower pass is about 22 feet long, and 

 the rise from the Saugh Pool to the pool in the pass is about 2| feet. 

 The gap in the sill of the upper weir and of the subsidiary weir is 1 foot 

 8 inches. Keference to these passes is also made in the report from this 

 district. 



Messrs. Wilsone and Duff'us, who act as Clerks to the District Fishery 

 Board, have acted throughout in the interest of the salmon fishery 

 proprietors in this matter, and have, after an infinite amount of 

 negotiation, brought the matter to a successful issue. 



Inver. 



A dam has been constructed at the outlet of Loch Assynt in this district. 

 The arrangement is very similar to that formerly described at Badanloch, 

 in the Helmsdale district. The dam consists of four sluices supported only 

 by the walls which form the sides of the water channels and the fish pnss. 

 The two side sluices are 6 feet 6 inches wide by 4 feet 6 inches deep. The 

 pass is in the middle, and has a gradient of about 1 in 6. It is 4 feet wide. 



The two side sluices are placed upon the original surface of the loch out- 

 let, the two central sluices being two feet deeper. In this way the tops of 

 all the sluices, when shut, are level. The low level of the road w^hich runs 

 along the side of Loch Assynt did not permit of the loch being raised more 

 than 4 feet 6 inches. By excavating 2 feet at the middle sluices, an 

 additional head of water at the outlet was secured. There is now, there- 

 fore, the possibility of raising Loch Assynt 4 feet 6 inches above its former 

 level, and of lowering it 2 feet. To provide against sudden spates, an 

 overflow channel has been excavated round the south side of the dam. 



The northern portion of the parish of Assynt has recently been purchased 

 from the Duke of Sutherland, and with this purchase have been included 

 the rights of salmon fishing. The portion includes the northern bank of 

 Loch Assynt a.nd the river Inver, to the southern side of Kylesku and 

 Glen Coul. 



