54 
Appendices to Tenth Annual Report 
the Fishery Board of Scotland will, in granting the sa ; d Several Oyster and 
Mussel Fishery, not grant such rights as will interfere with, or affect his rights 
to the Oyster and Mussel fisheries ex adverse* of his said lands of Kinlochlaich 
and Creigan. 
Further, the said Duncan Handby Campbell Munro is desirous that the 
navigation of the Loch and the drift-herring fishery nets should not be inter- 
fered with, and he craves that the Fishery Board in making out the fishing of 
the Loch will not put the buoys in the deepest water of the Loch. 
It humbly seems to me that the evidence for the promoter given above, 
is amply sufficient to prove that Loch Creran is well adapted for Oyster 
and Mussel culture ; that it formerly produced large quantities of these 
valuable molluscs ; and that careful and judicious culture and efficient 
protection would, probably, in a few years, restore it to its former pro- 
ductiveness. Mrs Ogilvie is prepared to cultivate that part of the sea- 
bottom of Loch Creran to which the Order applies, according to the most 
improved modern methods, and to have it protected, by day and night 
if necessary, against illegal fishing. This she can well afford to do, and 
I venture to think, looking to all the circumstances of the case, that 
she should be allowed the opportunity of doing so, and that her applica- 
tion for a Several Oyster and Mussel Fishery should be granted. 
I may, perhaps, be allowed to mention that, a short time ago, I in- 
spected the Oyster and Mussel fisheries on the West Coast, from Loch 
Ryan northwards to the Island of Mull, and presented a Report to the 
Board which is dated 18th February 1888. In the course of that inspec- 
tion, I visited and carefully examined Loch Creran, and I am perfectly 
satisfied of its capabilities for successful Oyster and Mussel culture, pro- 
vided the poachers from Oban and the neighbourhood can be effectually 
kept at bay. 
With reference to the Minutes put m regarding the properties of 
Balliveolan and Kinlochlaich by Colonel MacDougall and Mr Campbell 
Munro, it should be kept in view that the mere fact of Mrs Ogilvie's 
receiving the Order for a Several Fishery in Loch Creran ex adverso of her 
lands, will not give her the slightest right or title to interfere with, or 
infringe upon, the fisheries belonging to these properties which are held 
by Royal Grant or Charter ; and trespass upon fisheries so held may be 
resisted as readily and effectually after the grant as before it. Then, as 
to what is said in the Minute for Mr Campbell Munro about the buoys 
marking out the limits of the fishery being an impediment to the naviga- 
tion of the Loch, it is only necessary to remark that, whenever it can be 
shown that they form a serious obstruction to the navigation of the Loch, 
they may be put down in spite of the Several Order. Of this there can 
be no doubt whatever, as the following quotation from Professor Bell's 
Commentaries on the Law of Scotland is sufficient to show : — 
Navigation and fishing are the great public uses, to which the other rights 
are subservient. Navigation is a use for the public, primary and inalienable ; 
not to be interrupted or encroached on by grant of ferry, or by exercise of any 
ancient right of ferry. And those sailing in the course of the ferry cannot be 
stopped or impeded of their right of free navigation, unless it be shown that 
they are encroaching on the proper right of passage from shore to shore. 
Fishing is a secondary use ; but it is not inalienable, like that of navigation. 
So the right of sea-fishing for salmon may be given, either expressly by a 
grant of the fishing of salmon, or by a clause, cum piscationibus, followed by 
possession of salmon fishing. The grant of salmon fishing in the sea is the 
only monopoly of sea-fishing which has always been admitted. 
To the same effect Mr Stewart writes in his Treatise on the Law of 
Scotland relating to Rights of Fishing : — 
1 The right of fishing,' he says, ' is always subservient to the superior ripht 
' of navigation.' 
