280 



Appendices to Fourth Annual Report 



The Carloway, Barvas and Arnol. 



After leaving Garynahine from which I had inspected the Blackwater, 

 Morsgail, and Grimersta, I drove along the side of Loch Eoag to Carloway, 

 and from Carloway to Barvas, crossing the River Arnol by the way. 

 Carloway Bay, Mr Mackay, the Chamberlain of the Lews, informed nie, 

 was famous 40 years ago for producing the finest oysters in the island. 

 But they have long since been all dredged out. Oysters are still to be 

 found, however, at the head of Loch Eoag, not far from the Grimersta 

 Lodge."^ A pretty little river with fine streams and pools, and some con- 

 siderable lochs belonging to its basin, falls into the head of Loch Carloway. 

 But, strange to say, it forms an exception to the rivers in the island, where 

 fish in general rise so freely. Salmon won't take in the Carloway River. 

 Mr Anderson in his Leicsiana, published in 1875, says: — 



Numberless lochs in the neighbourhood abound with bro'svn trout, and those 

 whence the Carloway is fed are well supplied with sea-trout and salmon. 

 These latter, however, never rise to the angler in the Carloway River. 



And the author of Twenty Years' Reminiscences of the Leios, speaks 

 of— 



That deceiving Carloway River, with its nice pools, rushing streams, and long 

 deep, apparently good holding water, in which one never saw or got a fish. 



The next salmon river I came to was the Arnol, which has a course of 

 7 or 8 miles. There are 3 lochs at the head of its principal branch. 

 At its mouth, it forms a fresh water loch quite close to the sea, and there 

 is much good gravelly spawning ground in the mile or so of river between 

 this loch and the bridge on the high road. Between the Arnol and the 

 Barvas, there is another stream with two large lochs connected with its 

 basin, the lowest one a couple of miles long and not much above a mile 

 distant from the sea. Yet, I was told by the Stornoway Castle keeper 

 that salmon and sea-trout never find their ^vaj to it. The reason is not 

 far to seek. Just below where the road crosses the stream, there is one 

 of the old mills of the country, and a rough stone dam has been thrown 

 across the water in a diagonal direction, in order to supply water for the 

 mill, which belongs to a neighbouring village, and to which any of the 

 inhabitants may come and grind their corn in a rough way, the husk and 

 the grain being ground together. There was a good deal of water in the 

 stream at the time I examined it; but, notwithstanding, the dam formed 

 a complete barrier to the ascent of salmon or sea-trout. It would, how- 

 ever, be easy so to arrange matters as to supply the mill, and likewise to 

 allow the passage of fish to the lochs above. 



A couple of miles beyond this is the Barvas, a nice little salmon river, 

 which I inspected from the inn at Barvas. It has changed its mouth 

 within the last few years, and now expands into a large fresh water loch 



* Since the above was printed, Mr Harvie Brown of Dunipace, whose acquaintance 

 with the fisheries on the West Coast is both accurate and extensive, has favoured me 

 with the following note regarding a bed of excellent oysters in a loch on the south- 

 west of the Lews, spelt Loch Thamanabhaidh (pronounced Hamanavay) : — ' Keturned 

 ' from the trout lochs to the yacht, and with ray trout landing-net from the boat 

 ' caught up several dozens of delicious oysters, which we opened and eat on the spot. 

 ' This was close to the mouth of the little river ; but in slightly deeper water we 

 ' could see hundreds of others and many empty shells. Our yacht lay 150 yards 

 ' from shore in 9 fathoms, but all the edges of the circular loch are about 12 feet deep. 

 ' The rocks go straight down, but the bottom is a thick, muddy or gravelly deposit, 

 ' possibly diatomite in course of formation. The flavour of these oysters was superior 

 ' to any I ever tasted, and that in the month of June. A large bed could easily be 

 ' formed here ; but even if naturally fished, and not too much dragging on the shell, 

 ' or gravel banks, or mud, a very fair supply could be reared on the shallow parts 

 ' reserving the deeper parts for fishing.' 



