( 265 ) 

 APPENDIX G. 



REPOET. 



I HAVE the honour to Report that, during the summer of 1885, I 

 made, under the direction of the Fishery Board for Scotland, a careful 

 inspection of the valuable Salmon Fisheries in the Inner and Outer 

 Hebrides. This great group of islands has an area of 2812 square miles, 

 or 1,800,000 acres, with a population, in 1881, of 82,119. Two-thirds 

 of their surface consists of moor or moss, and the whole extent of 

 arable land does not exceed 200,000 acres. The Inner Hebrides are in 

 general composed of trap, while the Long Island, which forms with its 

 adjacent isles and islets the Outer Hebrides, is almost entirely formed of 

 gneiss. A peculiarity of these islands, especially of those belonging to 

 the Outer Hebrides, is the enormous number of lochs. The total number 

 is stated to be 1500, covering 50,000 acres, and a careful observer who 

 counted those in North Uist is stated to have reckoned up, in that island 

 alone, no fewer than 170, without computing mere mountain tarns. 

 Some of these have the most extraordinary and eccentric sinuosities of 

 outline, ramifying in every direction. For example. Loch Maddy, a 

 sea-loch in iSTorth Uist, has an area of only 10 square miles and 

 yet it has a coast line of upwards of 200. And among the fresh-water 

 lochs. Loch Scadoway in North Uist, which is said to have an island for 

 everj'- day in the year. Loch Roag and Loch Druidibeg in South Uist, 

 and Loch Trealaval in the Lews, display outlines almost equally irregular 

 and fantastic. These lochs are in general shallow, seldom exceeding 3 or 



4 fathoms in depth. The entire number of islands and islets belonging 

 to the Hebridean group has been calculated at 500, of which not more 

 than 100 are inhabited. The Long Island, from the Butt of Lews to 

 Barra Head, is nearly 130 miles in length, and its population is upwards 

 of 25,000. In its rivers and lochs and around its shores are to be found 

 the best fishings in the Hebrides, not only for salmon, but also for 

 herrings, cod and ling, and lobsters. 



The great extent of land constituting the Long Island is held by only 



5 proprietors. Lady Matheson has 417,416 acres; Sir Samuel E. Scott, 

 Bart., and Lord Dunmore have together 122,500; Sir John Campbell 

 Orde, Bart., has 68,000; and Lady Gordon Cathcart, 120,944 acres; 

 giving an average of 147,372 acres to each proprietor. 



The Inner Hebrides, in which there are salmon rivers and lochs, 

 include Skye, Mull, Jura, and the fertile island of Islay. ' If,' says Dr 

 Samuel Johnson, in his Journey to the Western Islands, 'it were 

 ' always practicable to fish, these islands would never be m much danger 

 * of famine ; but, unhappily, in the winter, when other provision fails, 

 ' the seas are commonly too rough for nets or boats.' 



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