of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



267 



days 100 boxes of salmon. The best fishing season he remembers was 

 that of 1883. There has never been any salmon-disease in Skye. All 

 the salmon caught around the island are sent off direct to London. Skye 

 has a very extensive coast line — upwards of 200 miles — owing to the 

 number of sea-lochs and bays that indent the island. I afterwards saw 

 Mr Macdonald, banker, Portree, who is agent for the three chief proprie- 

 tors in Skye, and found that his views with regard to the salmon fishings 

 very much coincided with those expressed by Mr Lawson. Like him 

 he admitted the occasional disregard of estuary lines and the weekly close 

 time. But pointed out the difiiculty and expense of enforcing the Bye- 

 laws throughout a coast-line so extensive as that of the Island of Skye. 

 The rent paid for the bag-net fishings to the three principal proprietors in 

 Skye is £670. 



There are 7 salmon rivers in Skye for which Districts and Estuaries 

 have been fixed under the Acts of 1862 and 1868. Their names are the 

 Sligachan, Broadford, Portree, Snizort, Orley, Oze, and Drynoch. The 

 Snizort is the largest, but they are all comparatively small streams. 

 They are late-seasoned rivers. But at present they are classed under the 

 largest and earliest group of Scotch Salmon Rivers ; their annual close- 

 time being from 27th August to 10th February, with extension of time 

 for rod-fishing to 31st October. They ought to belong to the latest 

 group, whose annual close-time extends from 10th September to 24th 

 February. 



Broadford River. 



I made a careful inspection of these rivers, the Broadford being the 

 first I visited. It rises in a small, reedy, shallow loch called Loch 

 Gilchrist, and, after a winding course of between 4 and 5 miles, falls 

 into the sea near the village of Broadford. At present, bag-nets can be, 

 and are so placed, as to intercept almost every fish seeking the river, the 

 estuary limit being *a straight line from Mr Mackinnon's Pier on the 

 ' north to the cottage on the beach, a little to the eastward of the Lime 



* Kiln and Pier on the south;' and even within these narrow limits bag- 

 nets are occasionally used. There is but a slight fall between Loch 

 Gilchrist and the sea. There are several stretches of good spawning 

 ground in the river bed, and no obstacles of any kind to the free ascent 

 of salmon. As already mentioned, the Broadford is a late river. 

 Evidence to this efi'ect was given 50 years ago before the Select Com- 

 mittee on the Salmon Fisheries of Scotland, by that experienced fisher- 

 man and observer the late Mr Robert Buist, who at that time had a 

 lease of salmon fishings in Skye. He then said : — ' We get no fish till 

 ' the end of May. It will not pay a man's wages till the month of May. 



* They remain in good condition until the 14th September.' 



Portree River. 



The Portree River, like the Broadford, is but a small stream. In its 

 upper part, the bed is rocky and unsuitable for spawning. But farther 

 down there are several nice pools ; and between the stone bridge and the 

 head of the Bay of Portree, into which the river falls, there is some good 

 spawning ground. There are no obstacles to the ascent of salmon. There 

 are no lochs connected with the Portree river, which is very much against 

 it as a fishing stream as it falls and rises with great rapidity, having no 

 reservoir to keep it in good fishing ply after a flood. 



