of the Fifihery Board for Scotland. • 297 



begins to flow strongly outwards through the sluices, at which period, 

 and for some time afterwards, the fishing is said to be at the best. The 

 concrete dike which here spans the salt water and is used as a bridge by 

 the people in the neighbourhood, is 3 feet wide in the centre, and only 

 2 feet wide for a considerable distance on each side of the central part. 

 There is no parapet of any kind ; and as there is a strong and deep tidal 

 stream running through the sluices and a breach in the dike, just below 

 where you stand, it is not exactly the place for a nervous man to fish 

 from. On the Loch Boisdale side of the dam, a steep rock rises abruptly 

 several feet above the dike, and in this rock there is a narrow nick or 

 cut, rather to one side of the dam, in which you must place your foot 

 and thence spring about 4 feet on to the narrow top of the dike, and if 

 you miss your footing you fall into the deep water on either side. As 

 this dam is used as a bridge by the natives, and a number of women cross 

 it daily in all weathers, it is wonderful that no accident has ever happened. 

 Although the trout had taken so well during the fine weather of the 

 preceding day, we did not find them rise freely in the cold, gusty, showery 

 weather, which prevailed whilst we were fishing from the top of the dam. 

 But we got a few yellow trout, and also a number of lithe. You require 

 to have strong tackle wbile fishing in this tidal stream, so as to be able to 

 bear hard upon the fish and keep their heads above water, otherwise you 

 will lose them in the sea-weed which abounds in the water below the 

 dam. The yellow trout here are at least half a mile from the nearest 

 fresh water; in water where one would expect to find nothing but sea- 

 fish or the migratory salmonidae — in fact, I never saw or caught them 

 anywhere else under such circumstances. They were probably what Dr 

 Knox has denominated the Estuary Trout. 



Lodi-a-Barph. 



Xext day, when a perfect storm of wind and rain had a little 

 moderated, I went, along with the landlord of the Loch Boisdale Hotel, 

 to inspect Loch-a-Barph, a considerable sheet of water about a mile from 

 the hotel. There is a fine lead for sea-trout from the sea to this loch, 

 the sea flowing as high as a point called Clachan Ardha at ordinary 

 spring tides. A stream runs from the loch into the sea, and four burns 

 fall into it from the neighbouring hills, the chief of which flows out of 

 Loch Stuillival, a loch between 2 and 3 miles in circumference. It was 

 the 9th of July when I inspected Loch-a-Barph, and no sea-trout had yet 

 been caught in it, which shows the lateness of the fishings in South Uist. 

 At times, however, great quantities of sea-trout are found in it, as the 

 Rev. Mr Campbell, already mentioned, told me that, some years ago, 

 120 large sea-trout — the smaller ones were not counted — were taken out 

 of Loch-a-Barph at a single haul of the net. 



Lobster Fisliings in the Long Island. 



I visited the Long Island in 1876, along with Mr Spencer Walpole, on 

 a Government Inquiry into the Crab and Lobster Fisheries in Scotland ; 

 and many of those whom I had met in the course of that Inquiry, and 

 who are intimately acquainted with the lobster fisheries, spoke to me on 

 the subject last summer, especially pointing out that certain provisions of 

 'The Fisheries (Oyster, Crab, and Lobster) Act, 1877,' which had been 

 passed to carry out the recommendations in our Report, were entirely 



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