of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



293 



the lochs and rivers on the western side of the Lews and Harris and into the 

 Howmore River on the western side of South Uist. The sea-trout and 

 bull-trout, he also says, run large in the lochs on the Atlantic side of 

 North Uist, while in the lochs on the Minch side they are only of an 

 ordinary size — from half-a-pound to 2J lbs. The superior size and con- 

 dition of the sea-trout in the lakes on the Atlantic side, he attributes to 

 the immense quantity of sand eels to be found in the extensive strands at 

 Vallay and Paible. 



BENBECULA. 



A complicated, shallow strait, upwards of 3 miles wide, and fordable 

 at low water, separates i^orth Uist from Benbecula. In foggy weather, 

 or at night, the passage across is dangerous, as the ford is intricate, and 

 there are quicksands, and here and there deep pools left by the tide. 

 Benbecula is of a circular shape and about 8 miles in diameter. Its name 

 is said to be derived from ' Bein-na-faoghail,' meaning mountain of the 

 fords, as it has the ford already mentioned on the north and a narrower 

 ford on the south, between it and South Uist. It has an area of 22,874 

 acres, and in 1881, it contained 1781 inhabitants. The western side of 

 Benbecula presents a fiat sandy shore with a comparatively even coast 

 line, with the exception of one deep indentation. But the eastern side is 

 of quite a different character, and is thus graphically described by Mac- 

 cuUoch in his Western Islands : — 



The eastern side of the island, and the eastern portions of the northern and 

 southern boundaries are characterized by those tortuous and intricate inden- 

 tations of the shores which occur in South Uist. But they far exceed these in 

 their capricious sinuosities ; forming a labyrinth from which a stranger, 

 attempting to move among them, whether by land or water, is unable to 

 extricate himself. Of these. Loch Uskevagh is the most remarkable, occupying 

 a space of 10 or 12 miles in circumference, in which the land and water are 

 interspersed among each other in such equal proportions and such minute 

 divisions that it is difficult to say which predominates. The visitor who 

 attempts to explore it is unexpectedly surprised by the occurrence of new 

 channels and fresh headlands, when he had imagined himself at the end of his 

 voyage ; and in the multiplicity of islands and promontories which open and 

 shut upon him at all hands, loses the recollection of his place and the clue to 

 his return. 



There is a comfortable inn at Creagorry, on the south shore of Ben- 

 becula, with some good fishing attached to it. There are scores of fresh 

 water lochs spread over the surface of the island, among the chief of 

 which are Loch Langavat and Loch Ollevat. I went with Mr Bain, the 

 landlord of the hotel at Creagorry, to see a mill on a stream which is 

 the outflow of a great chain of lochs, but which, owing to the way in 

 which it has been treated in connection with the working of the mill, is 

 at present quite impassable for sea-trout and salmon. There is a high 

 and strong dam across the foot of the loch and a sluice at the intake of 

 the lade which supplies the mill, and there is, near the wheel, a wooden 

 shoot, through which the water is discharged in a perpendicular fall, just 

 as at Mullanageren in North Uist. No fish can at present get up either 

 by the burn or the lade connected with it. But there is another burn 

 flowing out of the left hand lower corner of the loch, a little choked up 

 with weeds, but still having a considerable body of water in it. This 

 burn passes through an archway under the road leading to the mill ; and, 

 a few yards below falls into a bay of the sea. The channel below the 

 road should be cleared out and deepened. Then, in the bed of the burn. 



