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Appendices to Seventh Annual Report 



in all respects, equal to Loch Leven trout, arid the pity is that they are so 

 few and far between. The Orchy above the falls is always a very late river ; 

 and, last season, probably owing to the exceptional dryness of the weather, 

 no salmon had been taken in the Black Mount water up to the end of June. 



FISHING FOR SALMON BY BASKETS FIXED AT 

 WATERFALLS. 



A curious mode of fishing used to be practiced at a place called 

 Catnish, near the falls of the Orchy. It is thus described by a writer 

 about a hundred years ago : — 



Four miles below the church, at a place called Catnish, shoals of salmon are 

 taken in the Orchy by a simple but fatal device. A bold projecting rock 

 crosses the river nearly from side to side. Its height is such that few fish can 

 overleap the torrent ; which, after rains, rushes forcibly into the pool below. 

 Many salmon, in attempting to leap, fall into a creel or basket, fixed trans- 

 versely within the stream. But the great slaughter is affected in a more 

 fraudulent manner. On the one side of the river there is an opening, of the 

 wideness of a mill-race, betwixt the rock and the bank. Here a wicket-gate is 

 fixed that can be opened and shut at pleasure. Many yards above this entry 

 the stream is secured by a like barrier. When the water is high and turbid, 

 the fish are let in below, and when the fisherman is satisfied with the numbers 

 that have passed into his toils, he shuts the doors of his prison, and, like a 

 merciless executioner he drags his prey with his spear, one after another, on 

 shore. Scores, at times, are thus destroyed in the course of a few hours. 



In several other places in Scotland, a creel or basket was fixed near a 

 waterfall, in order to catch salmon who fell back after vainly attempting 

 to clear the obstruction. For a long time there was a basket of this kind 

 at the Falls of Tummel ; and, previously to the construction of the Cale- 

 donian Canal, which changed the levels of the waters, there was a creel 

 near Lochiel's residence at Auchnacarry, and I have been told that when 

 a salmon fell into this creel it was not only captured but announced its 

 capture to the cook, as there was an arrangement by which the falling of 

 the salmon into the creel rang a bell in the kitchen. Of course all creels 

 or baskets or similar contrivances for catching salmon are now illegal, as 

 the 5th subsection of the 15th section of 'The Salmon Fisheries (Scot- 

 ' land) Act, 1868,' enacts that every person ' who sets or uses, or aids in 

 ' setting or using, a net or any other engine for the capture of salmon, 

 ' when leaping at or trying to ascend any fall or other impediment, or 

 ' when falling back after leaping, shall for every offence be liable to a 

 ' penalty not exeeding £5 ; and to a farther penalty not exceeding £2 for 

 ' every salmon taken or killed in an illegal manner, and shall forfeit the 

 ' salmon so taken.' 



THE KINOLASS. 



The Kinglass, one of the best little rivers in the west of Scotland for 

 salmon and sea-trout, runs through the Black Mount, past Forest Lodge, 

 and falls into the side of Loch Etive. It rises in a wild mountain 

 glen, 2200 feet above the level of the sea, on the northern skirt of 

 Ben-nan-Aighean. Thence it has a winding course through Glen 

 Kinglass until it joins Loch Etive. In its upper part it is a rapid brawl- 

 ing mountain torrent ; but between Forest Lodge and its mouth, a 

 distance of about six miles, its descent is less precipitous, and there are 

 upwards of twenty-five pools for salmon and sea-trout, — among the best of 

 which are Rock Pool, Maiden's Pool, Ford Pool, Dog's Pool, Bridge 

 Pool, &c. The Kinglass is a late river, July, Angust, and September 



