of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



3 



Trossachs, formed originally the chief head waters of the Forth 

 district. I have been informed by one who has had long 

 experience of fishing in the district that he has known as many as 

 nine salmon being taken in one day by rod on Loch Vennacher. 

 In the days when a plentiful water supply was available this loch 

 must have been the Loch Tay or the Loch Ness of the Forth 

 district. 



From a salmon fishery point of view the great misfortune of the 

 Forth district is the abstraction of an enormous quantity of water 

 to the City of Glasgow. From Loch Katrine some sixty to 

 seventy million gallons are taken every twenty-four hours, leaving 

 only about five millions to five millions and a half to descend the 

 Achray Water as compensation. This amount, except during 

 times of flood, forms but a small stream compared to the old flow 

 to Lochs Achray and Vennacher, and is much against the ascent 

 of early fish. 



Loch Katrine outlet works are furnished with nine sluices in 

 descending order as to level. The lowest sluice of all, which is 

 larger than the others, opens by being raised. The remaining 

 eight open by being lowered. A bye-wash exists at the left bank, 

 and I am informed by the water-gauger that in times of flood the 

 nine open sluices are not able to reduce the loch's level. A very 

 solid pass is built below and parallel to the weir. This in its 

 gradual descent receives the water from the sluices which are 

 open. Opposite each a pool is constructed 10' x 6' x 2' 3'', 

 Salmon have, on occasion, been seen in those pools, but in the 

 famous loch above pike are, I fear, more evident. This pass is 

 figured in Mr. Carl Schmidt's recent paper Studier dfver Fiskvajar, 

 etc., Stockholm 1906. 



For fish which do not ascend so far, the Finglas Water, which 

 enters the Blackwater below Loch Achray, forms a good spawning 

 stream as far as the falls, about three-quarters of a mile up. 

 These falls are impassable. There are four cascades over perpen- 

 dicular ledges in a narrow and deep gorge ; the furthest down fall 

 is seven or eight feet high. No pass is possible except at great 

 cost. 



An important area in the district, which, in my opinion, deserves 

 careful consideration in any survey in the interests of salmon 

 fishing, is that drained by the Leny. The lower portion of the 

 Leny is boulder-strewn and comparatively shallow, not very 

 promising from a sporting point of view. Below the Falls of 

 Leny some good water occurs, while above the Falls and below 

 Loch Lubnaig there is good spawning ground. 



The point, however, which has repeatedly occurred to me is the 

 possibility of improving not only the fishing in the Leny, but in 

 the water below it and the loch above it, by raising to a moderate 

 extent the level of Loch Lubnaig. The outlet from this loch is 

 particularly narrow opposite St. Bride's Signal Box of the 

 Callander and Oban Railway, and might with advantage be 

 examined and the nature of the banks on each side tested and 

 levels along the loch taken in order to determine whether or not 

 a suitable weir could be constructed for the purpose of impound- 



