of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



129 



' the loch is not above half full, and the other when it is above 

 ' half full, as it is difficult to adapt one to the varying conditions 

 ' attending so great a rise and fall as 20 feet. Each of the passages 



* must be so arranged when in tunnel, as to have air and light over 

 ' the surface of the water, and to have no under current of water 

 ' shooting out through the sluice with such velocity that no fish 

 ' can overcome it. There must be a waste weir of sufficent 

 ' expanse to prevent flooding, and the sluices, &c, must be all placed 

 ' and arranged so as to be easily worked above the level of the 

 ' water in the very highest state of the loch. We are of opinion 

 ' that all these desiderata can be easily achieved, and at a moderate 

 ' expense, considering the objects thereby secured. By thus increas- 

 ' ing the constant supply of water from the loch, and, consequently, 

 ' thereby increasing the average flow in the river, anything that 

 ' may be done for the improvement of the dam-dikes would be 

 ' rendered vastly more efficient, and the mill power be much 

 ' enhanced in value.' 



A careful personal inspection of the localities referred to has 

 convinced me of the correctness of the views expressed and of the 

 soundness of the advice given in the Eeport from which the above 

 quotations are taken. 



The Ayr. 



This river, though the largest of the Ayrshire rivers, is now 

 almost salmonless, owing to pollutions, poaching, want of protection, 

 obstructions, and stake and bag-nets placed too near its mouth. 

 These have produced their usual and inevitable result — the ruin 

 of the fishings ; so that the following description given by Mr 

 Buckland and myself in our Report of 1871 is still true of this 

 naturally fine stream : — ' The Ayr, as a salmon river, is in a 

 ' very bad state. No weekly close time is observed. There are no 

 ' gratings to the mill-lades. Fry are killed by anglers, colliers destroy 

 ' the breeding-fish at the top of the river, the stake-nets destroy the 

 ' ascending fish at the bottom, and pollutions destroy in the middle. 

 ' If it were the object to extirpate, instead of to preserve and 

 ' increase, that object could hardly be more effectually carried out 

 ' than by the system now adopted. If these evils could be remedied, 

 ' and the proprietors would co-operate in protecting the salmon 

 ' interests, the Ayr might, as in former years, produce tons of salmon 

 ' annually, as the Ayr and the Lugar still continue to possess good 

 ' spawning-grounds.' 



There is ample evidence to prove that, in former times, and even 

 at no very remote date, the Ayr was a productive salmon river. 

 A charter of Alexander the Third grants, among other things, a 

 right of salmon fishings in the river to the burgh of Ayr ; and, in 

 1531, a grant was made by the town to the monastery of the 

 Blackfriars, of ' ane piece of land next the seat and place of a 



• mylne, and the cruives for fishing of salmon.' In the beginning 

 of last century, the fishings by net and coble were very good, and were 

 the subject of more than one lawsuit ; and to come down to more 



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