6 Appendices to Eighth Annual Report 
Macdonald 
Fish way at 
Westfield dam. 
Macdonald 
Fishway at 
Ashbank Dam. 
After leaving the Keith, I proceeded to Westfield dam the highest on 
the river. This dam is a tremendous obstruction, 13 feet perpendicular, 
and the intake lade draws off a perfect river of water for the use of the 
jute mill. The Macdonald Fishway is on the left bank close to the intake 
lade. When we arrived, there was but little water in the fishway, but 
even that little — far too little to enable fish to run up — was foaming and 
broken, there being white water even in the centre, where in a Macdonald 
Fishway in perfect working order, there should have been black and almost 
perfectly still water. Only four of the thirty and upwards of short tubes 
discharging water on to the fishway were in working order at the time of 
my visit ; the rest were ail more or less choked up with gravel and other 
debris brought down by the river. There were stones in the tubes varying 
in size from that of a man's fist to small gravel, also twigs, and branches, 
and other drift. 
On taking out a plank that had been put in to prevent the admission of 
more than the very moderate quantity of water we found in the fishway, 
an ample stream poured down it in a white foaming torrent, so strong 
that when Mr Lumsden plunged a plank in it he had the greatest diffi- 
culty in holding infirm, and the water spurted from it in all directions. 
No fish could have looked at the water in the fishway. It would have 
been whirled backwards at once. The fact is that the working of the 
fishway depends almost entirely upon the steady and uniform acting of 
the water in the tubes ; and if these tubes are disabled from acting, which 
was the case during my visit, the fishway becomes the worst of all fishways 
owing to its steep gradient, which, in the case of that on Westfield dam, 
is only four horizontal to one perpendicular. So long as the tubes are 
clear and act properly, the tendency of this steep gradient to produce 
white and broken water is counteracted, and there is black and compara- 
tively still water in the fishway, up which a salmon can easily swim. But 
when the tubes are choked up, the Macdonald Fishway becomes the worst 
of all fishways instead of the best, so that it would seem to be unsuited 
for rivers which, in floods, bring down a great deal of gravel and detritus 
of various kinds which most of our Scotch salmon rivers do. 
I observed that the bottom of the water above the dam close to the head 
of the fishway is entirely composed of gravel, which, in spite of the flood- 
guards and gratings intended to protect the fishway, seems to enter and 
disable the tubes whenever there is a flood. At the time of my visit, the 
Ericht was just beginning to fall and clear after a flood. 
The other Macdonald Fishway on Ashbank dam, the dam below West- 
field, was in the same unsatisfactory state as that at Westfield. Indeed, 
the water in it seemed even more rapid and tumultuous. Mr Lumsden 
informs me that no salmon have ever been seen above the Keith, and 
neither salmon nor sea-trout in the river above Westfield. My own 
impression and that of Mr Lumsden is that neither salmon nor sea-trout 
have been able to ascend as high as the foot of the Macdonald Fishway at 
Ashbank dam. But even if they were able to penetrate so far, I do not 
think that they would be able to ascend the fishways in the disabled 
condition in which they were when I inspected them. 
It may possibly be said, that, except when the river is in flood, the 
Macdonald Fishways will work perfectly well. But fish, as a rule, do not 
run when a river is low, but when it is clearing and subsiding after a 
flood ; and a fishway that is only in acting order when salmon are not 
running can scarcely be said to fulfil the functions of a fishway, which are 
to enable running fish to ascend otherwise impassable obstructions between 
them and the spawning grounds above. No doubt, the ability and_ 
experience and practical ingenuity of Colonel Macdonald will enable him 
