308 



Appendices to Fourth Annual Report 



or Court of Session ; that constables, or water bailifi's be employed and 

 paid by the Board to see that all illegal fishing be put down, and illegally 

 killed fish forfeited ; that it should not be necessary to prove the locus 

 under the 25th section of the Act of 1868, when salmon or sea-trout are 

 killed by unqualified persons ; that the county police and the ofiicers and 

 men of the coast-guard may and should be authorised to assist in enforc- 

 ing the provisions of the 25th section of the Act of the Salmon Fisheries 

 Act of 1868, as was contemplated in a Salmon Fisheries Bill for Scotland, 

 brought in in 1861 by Lord Advocate Moncrieff and Sir G. Lewis, the 

 62nd section of which provided that — 



' The officers and men of the coast-guard service, and the superintendent 

 and officers and men of the county police force, shall have the same powers 

 and privileges as are conferred by this Act on any superintendent and water- 

 bailiffs respectively, for enforcing and carrying into execution the provisions 

 of this Act, and may at all times, when required, by any person having 

 authority under this Act, aid and assist in carrying out the provisions of this 

 Act. 



' And that there should be inserted in any future Salmon Fisheries Act 

 a section similar to the 2nd section of the Poaching Prevention Act, 25 

 and 26 Vict. cap. 114, which has been found extremely useful in pre- 

 venting game poaching, and which provides that — 



' It shall be lawful for any constable or peace officer in any county, burgh, or 

 place in Great Britain and Ireland, in any highway, street, or public place, to 

 search any person whom he may have good cause to suspect of coming from 

 any land where he shall have been unlawfully in search or pursuit of game, 

 or any person aiding or abetting such person, and having in his possession any 

 game unlawfully obtained, &c.' 



THE ISLAND OF ISLAY. 



I finished my inspection of the salmon fishings in the Inner and Outer 

 Hebrides with the island of Islay, which is the largest and most 

 important of the southern group of the Hebrides. It is 25J miles in 

 extreme length ; 19 in extreme breadth ; and its area is 235 square 

 miles or 150,355 acres. The population in 1881 was 8917. The 

 southern part of the island is cleft into two great peninsulas by Loch-in- 

 daal which, opening with a width of 8 miles, penetrates the land for 12 

 miles in a north-north-easterly direction. It expands into Laggan Bay 

 about the middle of its eastern side ; contracts to a breadth of from 1 J 

 to 3 miles in its upper part ; and is throughout comparatively shallow 

 for such a wide expanse of water. Islay is less mountainous than any 

 other of the great islands of the Hebridean group, and its soil is much 

 richer, so that it is said that half of its surface might be advantageously 

 subjected to regular tillage. The Laggan and the Sorn are the only 

 salmon rivers of any consequence, but there used to be another, called 

 the Anaharty River, which formerly ran into Loch Gruinnard. But, in 

 consequence of some drainage and reclamation operations, its course was 

 diverted, and it was made to fall into Loch-in-daal. Since then it has 

 been ruined as a salmon river. In his account of Islay, Dean Monro 

 mentions — 



Ane watter callit Laxay, wherupon maney salmond are slaine. 

 This is probably the Laggan. Martin says : — 



There are several of the rivers on the island affording salmon. The fresh 

 water lakes are well stocked with trouts, eels, and some with salmon. 



