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Appendices to Thirtieth Annual Report 



Corriehallie Forest. The Falls of Rogie have been to some extent 

 modified, as well as a fall above Garve, on the Blackwater. If the 

 difficulties of opening up the Falls of Conon cannot yet be overcome, it is 

 of great importance that the valuable tributaries at least be made 

 accessible to fish. 



Ayr. 



On 4th September I had occasion to visit the particular points which 

 remain for attention on this river. At the Privick Mill, water is taken 

 from the river by means of a weir of a rather peculiar shape. There is a 

 distinct upstream angle, but the apex is not far distant from the right 

 bank of the river, so that the one arm of the weir runs practically parallel 

 to that bank. I met representatives of the owner of the mill, and was 

 accompanied by the Chairman and Clerk of the District Fishery Board. 

 The requirements of the Salmon Fishery Acts with regard to sluices and 

 hecks were gone into, and I anticipate that the great waste of water which 

 commonly occurs here when the mill is not working, and the possibility of 

 kelts dropping down into the lade, will be obviated in future. At Haugh, 

 which I also visited, there is a high weir, the property of Ballochmyle, 

 which acts as a total barrier to the ascent of salmon in all ordinary 

 conditions of the river. There is no salmon pass, and the structure itself 

 is of extreme frailty. Accurate measurements showed the height of the 

 obstruction to be 6 feet 3 inches above the ordinary level of the pool below 

 the weir. The structure is of wood, and is made in two separate steps or 

 weirs, there being a pool of some size between. On discussing the best 

 way of overcoming the difficulty for fish, I was inclined to urge that the 

 pool between the sections of the weir be left. It seems possible that the 

 entire structure will have to be renewed, owing to the difficulty of inter- 

 fering with the old wooden beams. In this case it will be the more 

 possible to secure a good pass. At the time of my visit, a part of the 

 lower barrier had fallen out, so that the pool between this and the upper 

 weir was largely dry. 



At Barskimming Mill, further up the river, there is also no pass for 

 salmon. The weir is a short distance below the junction of the Lugar with 

 the Ayr. The weir seems to be, roughly, about five-and-a-half feet high, and 

 the downstream face is distinctly steep, so that if a simple chute-like pass, 

 as suggested by the Schedule of the Act of 1868, were contemplated, it 

 would be necessary, in order to get an easy gradient, to project the pass 

 into the pool above, as has already been done with good results at the 

 Overmills weir on this river. The tail race of the lade offers an extremely 

 good entrance to ascending salmon, and as a matter of fact the miller 

 stated that fish had ascended as far as the mill wheel. A fixed heck 

 having a suitable slope should be placed at the outlet from the lade to the 

 river. At the intake of the lade there is this difficulty, that the side of the 

 lade which is towards the river is not higher than the level of the river, 

 so that water freely flows at times from this section of the lade to the river 

 bed below the weir. The miller informed me that he had repeatedly seen 

 salmon entering the lade over this low side of the structure. It seems 

 necessary, therefore, that this low side be heightened, after which it will 

 be possible with safety to erect a proper heck at the intake. The details 

 I communicated to the Clerk of the Ayr Board. 



At the Nether Mill, just above the town of Ayr — the lowest mill on the 

 river — a new fish pass has been erected by the Town of Ayr by arrangement 

 with the Office of Woods, etc. The structure is nearer the right than the 

 left bank of the river, and, the weir being in two sections, the pass is also 

 in two sections, the lower of which is new. Unfortunately, advantage has 

 not been sufficiently taken of the pool between the two weirs, the new 



