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Appendices to Fourth Annual Beport 



To remedy this, a sluice should be constructed on the right bank of the 

 lade, a little below the intake. When the mill is working — and I was 

 informed that it does not work above a month in the year — this sluice 

 should be kept shut, and the water sent down to the mill wheel. But, 

 when the mill is not working, the sluice should be opened, and the water 

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

 cleared out and deepened. A considerable body of water, quite suffi- 

 cient to bring up sea-trout, if not salmon, would thus be sent down to the 

 sea whenever the mill was not working. In this way, the working of 

 the mill would not be in any way interfered with or injured, whilst the 

 migratory fish would be enabled to reach the loch, which they have not a 

 chance of doing, as matters at present stand. Two large burns, which 

 drain an extensive hillside and a wide flat moor, flow into Loch-na- 

 Geiran. 



Cockles in North Uist. 



After leaving Loch-na-Geiran we passed Vallay where there is an 

 extensive sandy bay abounding in cockles of large size and fine quality, 

 which, however, so far as I could learn, are not by any means utilized as 

 they might be. These cockles are gathered and used for food by the 

 people on the spot, but they are not gathered for exportation and sale. 

 The facts with regard to them are thus described by the minister of 

 VaUay in 1837:— 



The great resource for sustenance, particularly in a season of scarcity, is the 

 cockle, which is found in inexhaustable abundance on the sands, where, on the 

 retiring of the tide, hundreds of the people are seen collecting them. They are 

 an excellent and nutritious food made up into stews with some milk and with 

 a little bread. They form a principal part of the diet of poor people in seasons 

 of scarcity. As an article of luxury they form an excellent sauce with fish of 

 every description ; and used raw, they are little inferior to oysters. Besides this 

 valuable shell-fish, there are razor-fish, spout-fish, whelks, mussels, limpets, 

 and in parts, lobsters, clams, &c. The cockle, besides its importance as an 

 article of food, is of importance in some manufactures. Its shell, when burnt 

 gives the best lime known. In strength it is superior to any other, and in 

 whiteness it vies with snow itself. 



At a place called Paible, there is a strand considerably larger than that 

 at Vallay, where cockles are found in great abundance, and where, like- 

 wise, they are not utilized as they might be. 



I can personally corroborate what is above stated with regard to the 

 excellence of these cockles as an article of food, as I have tasted cockle 

 soup at Sheriff Webster's residence near Loch Maddy, scarcely inferior to 

 oyster soup ; and now that oysters have become so dear, cockles, such as 

 those to be found on the shores of these western islands, would form no 

 bad substitute, if they could be carried to a market in good condition. 

 How valuable they are when near a market, the following extracts from 

 the Report of 1879 on the Sea Fisheries of England and Wales, by Messrs 

 Buckland and Walpole, will clearly show : — 



Few people are probably aware of the value of the cockle industry. No less 

 than 2263 tons, worth ^11,000, were sent away in 1877 from the stations on 

 the north side of Morecambe Bay. In addition, it is estimated that one-third 

 of the entire take is consumed in the neighbourhood. The cockles, therefore, 

 taken every year on the north side of Morecambe Bay alone must weigh over 

 3000 tons, and be worth over ,£16,000. We believe that we are within the 

 mark in saying that the cockles from the south side of the bay are worth more 

 than ^5000 a year. It follows, therefore, that the value of this little mollusc 

 to the Morecambe Bay fishermen cannot be less than i>'20,000 annually. Yet 

 from the inquiries we have made in Morecambe Bay, we are unable to trace 



