of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



311 



these seasons to permit the ascent of salmon. There is some good 

 spawning ground in its channel. It ought, however, to be pooled at 

 intervals throughout its course by the erection of small dams across the 

 bed, beginning at a point where a rock extends over nearly the whole 

 breadth of its channel. A little below this rock, there is a perfect forest 

 of tall reeds entirely covering and blocking up the course of the stream, 

 quite impervious to fish, and extending, in one unbroken mass, for 

 several hundred yards. These reeds, I was informed, die down in winter. 

 But if it is .wished to give salmon and sea-trout free access to Loch 

 Guirm, which covers nearly 700 acres, the channel of the stream con- 

 necting it with the sea should be kept constantly clear and unobstructed, 

 and it would be easy to cut down these reeds with a long handled sickle, 

 and to carry them away. Below this, the stream remains free of weeds, 

 all the way down to the sea, the channel becomes steeper, and it assumes 

 more of the character of a large Highland burn. At its mouth, however, 

 just above high-water mark, it is much choked up by large stones which 

 might easily be removed. A little further up, the channel is crossed by 

 a bridge formed of a single large stone. A dam about a couple of feet 

 high should be formed just below this bridge, as above it there is a broad 

 shallow part of the stream which ought to be deepened in order to 

 facilitate the ascent of salmon. A little above Loch Guirm, and con- 

 nected with it by a considerable stream, there is a smaller loch called 

 Loch-a-Chor. If it were wished to open up these two fine lochs to 

 salmon, the stream between Loch Guirm and the sea should be cleared of 

 weeds and pools formed in it as resting-places for the ascending fish; and 

 the stones in its channel just above high- water mark should be removed. 

 If these improvements were carried out, I have no doubt that the Saint 

 would relent, the curse would be removed, and that salmon would get up. 

 It might also be advisable to make some hauls of the net in Saligo Bay, 

 into which the stream from Loch Guirm falls, and to take some pairs of 

 salmon ready to spawn, and place them on the gravel in the stream below 

 Loch Guirm, and in that between Loch-a-Chor and Loch Guirm, as the 

 smolts bred in these upper waters would naturally, after their descent to 

 the sea, attempt to return to their birthplace as grilse and as salmon. 



I have the honour to be, 



Your obedient servant, 



akchd. young, 



Inspector of Salmon Fisheries for Scotland. 



The Fishery Board for Scotland, 

 Edinburgh, March 15, 1886. 



