of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 5 



In a district such as the Forth the very numerous interests, and 

 even it may be the comparatively large number of salmon fishing 

 proprietors, might tend to some extent, at first consideration, to 

 render a workable scheme difficult of attainment. In the Helms- 

 dale the angling tenants not only work as an association, but fish 

 the various beats by rotation in descending order, and they are all 

 tenants of a proprietor who owns the whole river. The particulars, 

 with the cost and a plan of the Badanloch Dam on the Helmsdale, 

 were given in Appendix V. to my Report for 1904. Badanloch is 

 given as 2000 acres ; the water level was raised six feet, thus 

 storing 3,300,000,000 gallons, and the cost of the operation was 

 £693. It is not likely that Loch Lubnaig could be raised six feet 

 for so small a sum, if, indeed, it could be raised that height 

 without flooding the upper ground near Strathyre ; but this 

 can only be determined after an examination of the ground 

 by a competent man. " The entire catchment basin flowing out 

 of Loch Lubnaig (i.e., the combined drainage-areas of Lochs Voil, 

 Doine, and Lubnaig) is about 73 39 square miles. . . . The 

 usual practice among engineers is to add per cent, of rainfall 

 for each 100 feet of height above rain-gauges. . . . Applying 

 this rule to Loch Lubnaig catchment basin, where we have an observed 

 rainfall of 76*25 inches at an average height of 538 feet, we must 

 add 20 per cent, for the additional 809 feet of mean height, making 

 an average annual rainfall over the entire catchment basin of 

 91*5 inches."* In the same valuable paper, from information 

 supplied by the late Dr. Buchan, it appears that the total catch- 

 ment basin of Lochs V ennacher, Achray, Katrine, and Drumbie is 

 about 75*29 square miles, and the mean height above sea-level 

 1035*685 feet. The rainfall is reduced to cubic feet in each case, 

 and the totals given according to three methods of estimating 

 rainfall described by Dr. Buchan. In comparing in this way the 

 Vennacher catchment with the Lubnaig catchment, the following 

 figures are arrived at : — 



Vennacher. Lubnaig. 

 1st method, - 14,857,214,000 15,600,760,000 

 2nd method, - 14,991.815,000 15,750,446,000 

 3rd method, - 12,424,867,000 12,737,328,000 



Means in cubic feet, 14,091,299,000 14,696,178,000 



From these calculations, which are no doubt as accurate as can 

 possibly be obtained, it appears that there is rather more water in 

 the Lubnaig than in the Vennacher system, and this in spite of 

 the fact that Loch Katrine is the largest loch in either chain. 



From a table given on p. 213 of the paper already quoted, I 

 extract the following particulars as to the lochs in each chain. It 

 should be noted that Lochs Vennacher and Lubnaig correspond 

 very closely, and that the difference in level between Loch Voil, 



* The Scottish Geographical Magazine, xvi. No. 4, p. 221 — "A Bathy- 

 metrical Survey of the Fresh- water Lochs of Scotland." Sir John Murray, 

 K.C.B., and Fred. P. Pullar. 



