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Appendices to Second Annual Report 



APPEND rX G. — No. IT. 



KEPORT to the Fishery Board for Scotland, by Archi- 

 bald Young, Advocate, Inspector of Salmon Fisheries, 

 on the Rivers and Lochs that would be opened up to 

 Salmon by placing an efficient Salmon-Ladder on the 

 Falls of Tumme]. 



I have the honour to report that, during the first week of the 

 present month, by the direction of this Board, I carefully inspected 

 the series of streams and lochs in the fishery district of the Eiver 

 Tay above the Falls of Tummel. These falls at preseut form 

 almost a complete barrier to the ascent of salmon, and shut out 

 upwards of 100 miles of rivers and lochs well adapted for spawning 

 and angling purposes. 



There would be no difficulty in constructing, at a moderate cost, 

 a salmon-ladder which would enable salmon to ascend the falls 

 with perfect ease, and so stock the miles of fine spawning ground 

 that await them in the rivers above, and likewise the deep and 

 spacious reservoirs of Loch Tummel, Loch Rannoch, Loch Ericht, 

 and Loch Laidon. The Falls of Tummel are only 16 feet high. 

 Far higher falls, with a much greater body of water passing over 

 them, have been made accessible to salmon in the United States 

 and in Norway ; and a fishway on the Macdonald system would 

 almost certainly enable salmon to surmount the Falls of Tummel 

 with facility, while the expense of such a pass would not 

 exceed £250. 



The proprietors of the falls are Mr Butter of Faskally and Mr 

 Barbour of Bonskied. The first of these gentlemen, it is under- 

 stood, claims compensation for any loss to his fishings below the 

 falls which might result from the putting in of a pass which would 

 enable salmon to ascend them and reach the upper waters, while 

 the latter objects to the loss of amenity which such an interference 

 with the falls might cause. 



According to the existing Salmon Fishery Acts, District 

 Boards can put a fish-pass on a water-fall only by agreement 

 with the proprietor or proprietors. They have no compulsory 

 powers to construct a fish-pass, however great the benefits 

 that would accrue to the Salmon Fisheries in their district 

 by making the fall passable. If the owners object, the Board 

 is powerless. The 13th section of ' The Salmon Fisheries (Scot- 

 ' land) Act, 1868,' is the law which at present regulates this 

 matter, and it provides that ' the District Board shall, by agree- 

 ' ment (which agreement any heir of entail or other person under 

 ' disability, is hereby empowered to make with such Board, and to 

 ' implement), have power to purchase, for the purpose only of 

 ' removal, any dam, weir, cruives, or other fixed engines they may 



