of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



275 



sea, with which it is connected by a large burn ; and if salmon and sea- 

 trout were enabled to ascend, it is evident that the angling value of the 

 loch would be immensely increased, as, at present, it contains only yellow 

 trout. I went to inspect this loch, accompanied by the Stornoway Castle 

 keeper, to see whether it could be opened up to the migratory salmonidae ; 

 and if so, whether the improved angling to be thus obtained would be 

 worth the cost of procuring it. We drove a few miles out of Stornoway 

 on the higH road leading south, and then walked for some distance across 

 an undulating swampy moor to the loch, which is a fine expanse of water 

 about 5 miles in circumference, with a large island called ]Cilean Tarnish, 

 near the centre of it. It has a stony bottom and is said to be of consider- 

 able depth. A rivulet, much choked up by boulders and with several 

 small falls on it, issues from the loch and flows into a sea-loch termed Loch 

 Grimshadar. After a careful examination of the loch and its surround- 

 ings, and following the course of two burns down to the sea, it seemed to 

 me that there are two plans by which salmon and sea-trout might be 

 enabled to ascend ; first, by clearing out the course of the stream that runs 

 directly from the lake into Loch Grimshadar; and second by damming up 

 the outlet of Loch Orosay so as to raise its level about 3 feet, and then mak- 

 ing a cutting through the moor, about 240 yards long and 6 feet deep, so 

 as to divert the waters of the loch into a stream called the Alt-na-Graoibhe, 

 which is twice as large as the burn which flows from Loch Orosay. This 

 stream, into which the waters would be diverted, by the proposed cutting 

 falls into the sea at Tob Leirabhaidh, a small bay outside and to the south 

 of the Stornoway Hghthouse, where there is a station for fishing for 

 salmon with net and coble. There are no serious obstructions in the 

 channel of this stream, though its bed would require cleaning out and 

 deepening in some places. There is, however, a fall near its mouth, a 

 little above where it joins the sea, which has been blasted to some extent 

 but not sufficiently. A subsidiary dam should be made below this fall — 

 the materials for which are lying ready to hand — so as to raise the water on 

 the face of the main fall. The cost of the cutting through the moor above 

 mentioned is calculated by the Stornoway Castle keeper at <£30, as labour 

 is cheap in the Lews, and men can be got to work for 2s. per day. The 

 other plan, namely, the cleaning out the channel of the burn, which is the 

 natural outlet of the loch, would cost more but would, in my opinion, 

 probably be more effectual. I don't think it could be carried out under 

 £100. But Mackenzie the keeper, whose experience and intelligence 

 give great weight to his opinion, believes that <£60 would cover the cost. 

 The heaviest work would be in a picturesque rocky ravine, at least 60 

 yards long, about a mile from the sea. Here, there is a waterfall and a 

 great conglomeration, of huge boulders heaped around and about the 

 channel of the stream. The fall might be easily managed, but the re- 

 moval of the boulders would present greater difficulties. 



It would be a much less expensive, and possibly also a more successful 

 experiment, to stock this loch with the land-locked salmon or even with 

 the black bass, than to make the connection between it and the sea of 

 such a nature as to allow the migratory salmonidae to ascend freely. 

 Both these species of fish have already been introduced into this country, 

 and both reach a weight of from 5 to 10 lbs. The brown trout in most 

 of the Lews lochs are but of middling quality, far inferior, for example, 

 to those in the Sutherlandshire lakes. It would, therefore, be a good 

 exchange to have the larger and more sporting fish introduced into Loch 

 Orosay, even at the expense of thinning out or exterminating the brown 

 trout. When Colonel Macdonald, Commissioner of Fisheries in the 

 United States, and inventor of the famous ' Macdonald Fish way,' was in 



