Report on Salmon Fisheries. 
xi 
of the Macdonald Fishway depends, and so render it useless. The, 
beautiful highland streams, the Slice and the Ardle, which unite 
to form the Ericht about 6 miles above Blairgowrie, and each of 
which has a course of about 15 miles, arc at present salmonless, 
because no fish can possibly surmount the obstructions at Blair- 
gowrie. 
The Lunan is a small river with a course of about 14 miles The Lunan 
which falls into the Isla 3 miles above the junction of that river 
with the Tay. There are 5 considerable lochs belonging to the 
basin of the Isla which at present contain only pike, perch, and 
trout, but to which salmon might easily be enabled to have access 
by opening up an impassable dam about 2 miles above the junction 
of the Lunan with the Isla. The way in which this might be done 
is pointed out in Mr Young's Tenth Report to the Board which 
immediately follows this. 
Loch Venachar and Loch Achray and their connecting streams, Loch Venachar, 
contain salmon and trout ; Loch Katrine has no salmon ; but, un- ^ h L Q V c !j 1 1 iray ' 
fortunately, all these lochs also contain a great number of pike, and Katrine, 
the innkeepers in the neighbourhood, to whose hotels anglers resort 
in considerable numbers during the summer and autumn months, 
are very anxious to discover some effectual means of extirpating or 
thinning out the pike with the view of improving the salmon and 
trout fishing. This, however, is no easy matter in lochs of such 
depth and extent, though a good deal may be done in the spawning 
season when the pike resort to narrow ditches and water-runs, also 
by the use of hang-nets, and by what are called liggers or trimmers. 
The Ballisodare River falls into a southerly branch of Sligo Bay J^m^ot the 
on the West Coast of Ireland. Thirty years ago it did not contain Ballisodare 
a single salmon. It now yields from 8000 to 10,000 salmon River, 
annually. It is formed by the junction of two streams, the Owell 
and the Arrow, the latter of which flows through and out of Loch 
Arrow, a fine lake 5 miles long and nearly a mile wide. The 
drainage area of the Ballisodare River is about 300 square miles. 
Previously to the erection of the ladders, this river was entirely 
unproductive, and might have remained so to this day but for the 
intelligence and enterprise of a single individual — Mr Edward 
Cooper — who opened up the obstructions and enabled the fish to 
have free and uninterrupted access to the fine spawning grounds 
above, with the gratifying and remarkable results that, 1 1 years after 
the completion of the ladders, 10,000 salmon were caught in a river 
which had never produced one before. What was done on the 
Ballisodare might as easily be done in Scotland, on the Tummel, 
the Spean, the Conon, and on several other rivers,! but for the 
unsatisfactory state of the law with regard to the claims of the 
Crown to newly created Salmon Fisheries, and the claims of 
certain proprietors under old charters to follow salmon, in the 
event of a natural obstruction being opened up, even although the 
river and the lands on both sides of it above the obstruction do not 
belong to them. 
* A full account of the causes of the failure of these Fish ways will be found in 
Mr Young's Eighth Report, pages 5-8, and Note 8 to that Report. 
+ For a full account of all the natural obstructions on the salmon rivers of Scot- 
land, see Mr Young's Sixth Report to the Board, pages 30-58. 
