8 



Appendices to Twenty -sixth Annual Report. 



accompanying sketch, which is a tracing from one of the maps in 

 the possession of the Canal Commissioners used in connection with 

 the works. I am indebted to Mr. William Lennox, S.S.C., agent 

 for the Commissioners, for permission to use this tracing. 



The old outlet of the river was appropriated for the formation of 

 the canal in order to keep the southern end of the canal on the 

 west side of the lower river. A new channel for the river in its 

 course from the loch to its junction with the river Spean had 

 therefore to be formed ; hence at the present time this section of 

 the river Lochy is purely artificial. 



The conveyance by George Cameron of Letterfinlay to the Canal 

 Commissioners of part of the lands of Mucomer, " being the ground 

 " appropriated for a lockhouse and for a towing path between the 

 " said lockhouse and Loch Lochy . . . and for a new water 

 " course for the said river Lochy," maybe seen in the Eecord Office. 

 (27th Sept., 1811. P.K, 20-14.) From a perusal of it, it appears 

 that the solum of the ground was conveyed without any express 

 reservation. For all purposes, therefore, the Canal Commissioners 

 are the owners of the artificial upper part of the river Lochy. 

 They are at the same time, I understand, owners of the road bridge 

 which crosses the channel above the fall of Mucomer. 



The old junction of the Spean with the Lochy may still be 

 clearly made out close to the canal bank, at the bend of the river 

 below Gairlochy. The new water-course was cut considerably to 

 the east, and joins the river Spean at Mucomer Pool. Between 

 Mucomer and the old junction has now to be considered as part of 

 the river Loct^ rather than part of the tributary Spean. 



From the old junction to Loch Loch}^ by the original river was a 

 distance of about three-quarters of a mile, with an easy gradient 

 and uninterrupted channel. Without question the spring fish of 

 the Lochy ascended through the old channel to the loch instead of 

 turning off into the colder waters of the Spean. It was therefore 

 only after the making of the new water-course that spring fish 

 accumulated in Mucomer Pool. The water flowing from a large 

 loch like Loch Lochy may be considered without dubiety to be 

 similar to waters from Loch Ness and Loch Awe, which have been 

 carefully tested* and have been found to be in winter and spring 

 invariably warmer than the waters from tributaries draining high 

 land unfed by large lochs. In these comparatively warm waters 

 spring fish readily ascend, provided no serious obstruction stops 

 their swimming upwards. On meeting with a sudden influx of 

 cold water, ascent is stopped. Hence early Ness fish accumulate 

 in Loch Oich and afterwards in the lower Garry, and Lochy 

 fish now congregate in Mucomer Pool. Such spring fish, 

 even without the influx of a cold tributary, are, in Scotland, 

 completely checked by falls, which at a later time in the season, 

 when summer conditions of water temperature obtain, would be 

 but slight and temporary barriers. In this way we see all the 

 Helmsdale early fish remaining below the small fall at Kildonan, 



* " Water Temperature in Relation to the Early Annual Migration of 

 Salmon from the Sea to Rivers in Scotland. " Twenty-first Annual Report 

 Fishery Board for Scotland, Part II., Appendix V. 



