of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



289 



I have no idea what this * marled salmon,' described by Martin can 

 be. He afterwards mentions it as being likewise got in Benbecula. But 

 I found no trace of it in any of the islands.* 



At Loch Maddy, I was fortunate enough to be the guest of Sheriff 

 Webster, whose acquaintance with the fisheries in North Uist is varied 

 and extensive, and who is himself an accomplished practical angler ; and 

 I had the advantage of visiting the principal lochs and streams in the 

 island in his company. Not far from Loch Maddy is Loch-na-Ciste, or 

 the Loch of the Cruive, which communicates with the sea, and where 

 there is a cruive-dyke in which there was formerly a cruive-box. The 

 tide flows freely into this loch, so that salmon and sea-trout have access 

 not only into it, but likewise into Loch Skealter — into which the largest 

 stream in North Uist flows — and thence into Loch-na-Garb-abhuinn into 

 which another considerable stream runs from the maze and labyrinth of 

 waters called Loch Scadoway. In fact, through Loch-na-Ciste, salmon and 

 sea-trout have access to between 3000 and 4000 acres of fresh water lochs. 

 The ramifications of Loch Scadoway are intricate beyond conception, and 

 yet its waters are all discharged through three comparatively narrow 

 archways passing under the high road. I can easily conceive, therefore, 

 that even the instinct of the migratory salmonidae, who have found their 

 way into it, may be insufficient to extricate them, until a late period of 

 the year, from this watery wilderness. Sheriff Webster and the game- 

 keeper, both accomplished anglers, and thoroughly acquainted with the 

 habits of the salmonidse, assured me that they had caught kelts belong- 

 ing to this great watershed as late as the month of August. No doubt, 

 they had been unable to find their way down to the sea sooner. There 

 are scarcely any spawning streams running into Loch Scadoway, and most 

 of the fish spawn in the river running out of Loch Scadoway and in that 

 flowing into Loch Skealter, So far as the angling is concerned, it would 

 certainly be advisable to build a dam with a sluice at the head of the river 

 that runs out of Loch Scadoway, or to put up a grating to prevent the ascent 

 of salmon and sea-trout into Loch Scadoway, where no one catches them 

 and where they are of no use to anyone. There are numerous lochs in 

 the mountainous part of North Uist. But the trout they contain are not 

 nearly equal in size or quality to those found in the Machair or Meadow 

 district where the feeding is better. The sea-trout in this western portion 

 of the island are also larger and fatter than those found in the chain of 

 lochs connected with Loch-na-Ciste. 



On the 30th June, I drove nearly round the island, in company with 

 Sheriff Webster. We first stopped at Mullanageren where there is a mill 

 near the mouth of a stream, which has a course of about 200 yards from 

 Loch-na-Geiran, a fine large loch with shingly and sandy shores. But the 

 lade connected with this mill is so managed at present, that it is quite 

 impossible for any salmon or sea-trout to get up to the loch, though it is 

 so close to the sea. The foot of the loch is dammed up, and the water 

 which should be discharged into the natural channel of the burn is 

 diverted into the'^lade, and, when the mill is not working, is sent through 

 a wooden shoot, from which it issues in a perpendicular fall of at least 6 

 feet perfectly insurmountable by any fish. Then, even when the sluice 

 leading into the channel of the stream is opened, the passage below is 

 choked by great blocks of stone, so that no fish can get up, even 

 when the water is sent down the channel of the burn through that sluice. 



* Since the above was printed, I sent Martin's account of the ' marled salmon ' to 

 Sheriff Webster at Loch Madd)^ and he replies as follows : — ' I will tell you Avhat I 

 ' beheve to he the "marled salmon," viz., the "grey mullet." The description 



* given exactly tallies with its appearance and habits here. I have shot them several 



* times when running away in the shallow tidal lochs.' 



