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Appendices to Fourth Annual Report 



might be advantageously made in the stream, particularly in a narrow 

 gorge with a high rock on one side. The length of the river from the 

 lower sluice to the sea is a little over a mile. Great skill and ingenuity 

 have been displayed in making the cuttings which have been carried out 

 under the superintendence of the Ground Officer, without the assistance of 

 a regular engineer. Something, however, still remains to be done in the 

 lower cutting. Some of the runs are too long and have too much white 

 water in them, and the top of one of them should be hewn or blasted 

 out. A number of nice resting-pools have been formed in the course of 

 the cut. There should be a large pool made close to high-water mark. 

 I was informed that it is intended to net salmon in Loch Tarbert and 

 carry them up to the lochs, so that they may breed in the streams, and 

 the smolts come down to the sea. These lochs are outside the Deer 

 Forest, and I understand that it is intended, in the event of the efforts 

 made to bring salmon and sea-trout up to them proving successful, that 

 they shall be attached to the Tarbert Hotel fishings, which at present 

 comprehend only the Lacastile Lochs. Since the above was written, I 

 have bad the pleasure of receiving a letter from Mr Hornsby, dated 

 27th January 1886, stating that the improvements above suggested have 

 now been carried into effect, and that the result has been to give salmon 

 and sea-trout free access into the streams above the fall and the two lochs 

 beyond. He writes as follows : — 



About the Ballanachist work, it has turned out a complete success. In one 

 cut in the river near the middle, inspected by you and altered as you suggested, 

 there were counted 57 salmon ascending in half-an-hour. Two of that number 

 were washed on the bank by the force of the stream. We are still engaged 

 in altering the bed so as to make it more easy for the fish. The lower pool, 

 also suggested by you, is a most complete success. Had I allowed the river 

 and lochs to be fished, I am certain we would have taken over 500 salmon. 

 The river at one time got low, and left 23 salmon high and dry. "We secured 

 them and took them up in tanks to the upper loch (Loch-na-Morcha). 



This is certainly a most gratifying result, especially when it is con- 

 sidered that salmon and sea-trout have been enabled not only to pass a 

 waterfall 20 feet high but also to ascend a rocky rapid stream running 

 over a steep hill side and to reach the lochs beyond, by works designed 

 and carried out by an experienced practical fisherman, thoroughly ac- 

 quainted with the habits of salmon, but without any engineering education. 

 From the statement, however, that two salmon were washed out of the 

 cut on to the bank, it would seem as if the gradient were still too steep ; 

 and it would probably be an improvement to form a resting-pool for the 

 ascending salmon about the middle of the cut. The cost of these works 

 has been moderate when contrasted with the results obtained ; the whole 

 expense of carrying out the original works and making the alterations 

 suggested by me having been only ^£169. 



Meavaig River. 



After leaving the Ballanachist River I drove to the Meavaig, a salmon 

 stream entirely in the Deer Forest, flowing out of Loch Scoorst, one of 

 the best salmon and sea-trout lochs in Harris. Both river and loch are 

 late, and when I inspected them in the end of June there were no salmon 

 up. The Meavaig is about the size of the Creed, near Stornoway. It was 

 not in good fishing ply when I saw it, the water being very low. Loch 

 Scoorst is about 2 miles from the head of Loch Meavaig, a branch of 

 West Loch Tarbert. It is a mile and a half in circumference, and on 

 the right side looking up the glen it is overhung by a magnificent rock. 



