286 



Appendices to Fourth Annual Report 



Avonsui. 



Ou the 26th of June I drove from the Tarbert Hotel to Avonsui, the 

 residence of Lady Scott, iu Harris. I write the name as it is pronounced, 

 but the spelling in the Ordnance Map is Amhuinnsuidhe. There are two 

 rivers here, one of which rises in Loch Ashaval ; flows through two con- 

 siderable lochs, each about a mile long ; then traverses two much smaller 

 lochs ; and finally falls into a sea-loch termed Loch Leosavay, close to the 

 Castle at Avonsui. It is somewhat larger than the Meavaig Eivei, which 

 flows out of Loch Scoorst. Of the lochs through which the river flows, 

 the two smaller ones are the best for salmon, and the large loch above is 

 very good for sea-trout. In one of the smaller lochs, 14 salmon have been 

 taken by one rod in a single day. Another small river — the Halladale — 

 runs into Loch Leosavay oi^. the west side. There are two small lochs 

 connected with its basin — Loch Langavat and Loch Halladale — to both 

 of which salmon and sea-trout have free access. At low water, the 

 Avonsui falls over a rock into Loch Leosavay, in which salmon are said 

 to take the fly readily. Cuttings have been made in the rock with much 

 skill in order to facilitate the passage of salmon and sea-trout into the 

 numerous lochs belonging to the basins of the river, and these operations 

 have been attended with much success. I think, however, that it might 

 be advisable to have a wider and deeper resting-pool just above the rock 

 over which the stream falls into the sea at low water ; and the resting-pool a 

 little higher up should be widened. There is too much white water in it at 

 present. Macaulay, the Head Keeper at Avonsui, whose name figures fre- 

 quently and advantageously in the pleasant pages of Twenty Years' Reminis- 

 cences of the Leics, thinks that the rod-fishing in Harris should close on 

 the 15th October instead of on the 31st. He says that the fish are quite 

 out of condition after the 16th and ready to spawn. Both the Head 

 Keeper and his brother the Ground Officer, whose experience of the fisheries 

 is varied and extensive, are agreed that, 40 years ago, there were 20 

 salmon in Harris for 1 there is now. But they cannot state the cause of 

 the decrease. 



Loch Resort, which is about 7 miles long, divides Harris from Lews 

 on the west, and receives the waters of two rivers which flow into its 

 head — the Resort from Loch Voshimid and the stream from Loch 

 Uladale. These, the chief affluents of the loch, are entirely Harris rivers, 

 and the principal run of salmon and sea-trout from that sea-loch naturally 

 press upwards to ascend these streams. On the Harris side of Loch 

 Resort, there is no netting, but the keeper at Avonsui alleges that a 

 sweep-net which is worked on the Lews side of the loch by a lessee of 

 Lady Mathieson's, intercepts the majority of the fish trying to find their 

 way into the Harris rivers. This he states, arises from the fact that the 

 Harris side of the head of the loch is shallow while the Lews side is 

 deep, and, on the latter, is the chief run of the fish. There is a rock in 

 the centre of the channel, one half of which belongs to Harris and the 

 other half to the Lews. But the sweep-net, owing to the deep water 

 channel being on the Lews sides, intercepts the majority of the fish 

 which are Harris fish and bred in the Resort and Uladale rivers. The 

 fishing in this channel, however, seems entirely a matter for private 

 arrangement between the proprietors. The sweep-net is a perfectly legiti- 

 mate instrument for the capture of salmon within an estuary ; and the 

 Lews proprietor is merely availing herself of the fortunate accident which 

 placed the deep water channel on her side of the loch. If the weekly 

 close-time be regularly observed, the fish will have 36 consecutive hours in 

 every week to ascend the rivers without interruption from the net ; and the 



