14 



Appendices to Seventh Annual Report 



LOCH BEA AND THE LOCHY 



In the beginning of July I left the Black Mount for Oban, in order to 

 meet the members of the Awe District Board. On my way to Tyndrum, 

 I passed Loch Bea — a nice little trouting loch attached to the hotel at 

 Tyndrum — and the Lochy, the stream which flows out of it into the 

 Orchy. This stream runs through a prettily wooded and picturesque 

 gorge in which there are several waterfalls, and it has been proposed to 

 blast them in order to let salmon or, at all events, sea-trout into Loch 

 Bea. This, I think, would be a mistake, because it would cost too much, 

 and, because, even if carried out, salmon and sea-trout would have to 

 pass into Loch Bea through a small shallow stream, which would offer 

 great temptations and facilities to the poacher. 



ANSWERS TO PRINTED QUERIES BY MARQUIS OE 

 BREAD ALBANE. 



In his answers to the printed queries, the Marquis of Breadalbane 

 expresses his opinion that the angling season on the Awe and Orchy should 

 close on the 10th October, instead of, as at present, on the 31st. He 

 approves of a close time for trout and char, from 1st October to 1st 

 March, and he is satisfied with the present period of the weekly close 

 time ; but states that it is not strictly observed, either by net and coble/or 

 by bag and stake nets, in those parts of the west of Scotland with which 

 he is acquainted. He approves of having a fixed minimum as well as a 

 maximum penalty for offences under the Salmon Fishery Acts — the 

 minimum penalty to be one-fourth of the maximum ; and he is also in 

 favour of prohibiting the sale, or offering for sale, of salmon caught during 

 the extension of time for rod- fishing. With regard to the prevention of 

 pollutions, he would give to District Boards, within their own districts, 

 the same powers, for the abatement of pollutions in rivers and waters, as 

 are at present competent to riparian proprietors at common law. But he 

 states that in his district of Argyleshire there are no pollutions, and that 

 the salmon disease has never yet shown itself. He farther states that 

 there is a great deal of illegal fishing by yachtsmen on the West Coast for 

 salmon and sea-trout, and that 'scringing' for salmon and sea-trout by 

 fishermen who have no title or right to fish for or to take such fish is 

 ' increasing enormously.' He suggests as a remedy that the police should 

 have the right of search, and should be obliged to prosecute unqualified 

 persons found in possession of fish of the salmon kind. 



ILLEGAL FISHING BY YACHTSMEN. 



With regard to the illegal fishing by yachtsmen complained of by Lord 

 Breadalbane, in his answers to the printed queries, I may state that com- 

 plaints have again and again, and year after year, been made to me by 

 proprietors and lessees of salmon fishings on the West Coast of Scotland, of 

 the injury done to their fishings by poaching by yachtsmen in the mouths 

 of rivers, in bays and sea-lochs, and along the coast in the narrow seas, 

 where all the salmon fishings are the private property either of the 

 Crown or of the grantees of the Crown ; and the illegality of the conduct 

 of yachtsmen in fishing for and capturing salmon or sea-trout in such 

 localities, was brought before the Fishery Board in my Third Annual 

 Report. The complaint is a very old one, though no effectual steps have 

 as yet been taken to prevent or abate the unlawful fishing complained of. 

 So far back as February 1874, I drew up a circular, which was signed 

 by the Commissioners of Scotch Salmon Fisheries, and sent to the 



