of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 
river was in flood and fish running up they would first meet the stream 
from this new cut and ascend by it into the loch, instead of vainly 
attempting the present impassable salmon ladders. 
Loch Katrine is a grand and beautiful loch with magnificent surround- 
ings of rock, mountain, and woodland. It is 364 feet above the sea, and 
measures 8 miles in length by nearly a mile in extreme width off Letter 
Farm. It has a maximum depth of 78 fathoms. The Glengyle water, in 
which there is good spawning ground, flows into its head, and no fewer 
than forty-eight streams and rivulets leap down the hill-sides to join its 
waters. It contains char, abundance of fine trout, and pike running up to 
20 lbs. weight. But during the twenty years I have been connected with 
the fisheries, I have never heard of any salmon being captured in it. As 
already mentioned, there is fine spawning ground in Glengyle water, and 
so there is also in the Stob-a-Chair water, which runs into Loch Katrine 
opposite the Black Island. If the alteration I have suggested near the 
sluices on the Achray water should ever be carried out, it might be worth 
while putting salmon fry into these two streams. The trout fishing in 
Loch Katrine has greatly improved since the level of the loch was raised 
several feet for the supply of Glasgow with water. Stronachlachar Hotel 
is the best station for the angler, and about the finest fishing in the loch 
is between that hotel and Glengyle. 
The chain of lakes which I have described, beginning with Loch Ven Difficulty of 
acher and ending with Loch Katrine, are all much infested with pike, to keeping down 
the great detriment of the salmon and trout fishing ; and the innkeepers at J^ggg^ochs 
the Trosachs Hotel, and at Stronachlachar and Callander, are greatly exer- 
cised in their minds how to thin out or exterminate the pike. My old 
friend and colleague, Frank Buckland, used to recommend trying to destroy 
them in spring in their spawning season, when they ascend ditches and 
shallow runs of water, for the purpose of propagating their species. Hang- 
nets have also been recommended. But in large and deep lochs such as 
those in question it is almost impossible to get rid of pike. Sixty years 
ago there were no pike in Loch Tulla, from which the River Orchy, the 
chief feeder of Loch Awe, issues. The trout fishing in Loch Tulla, both 
for quality, number, and weight, was then unsurpassed in Scotland. But, 
unfortunately, pike were put in, and in a short time they not only nearly 
ruined the fishing in Loch Tulla, but also found their way through the 
Orchy into Loch Awe ; so that the chief expense of the Loch Awe Fisheries 
Improvement Association is now incurred by their efforts to thin out the 
pike ; and the Marquis of Breadalbane is compelled to have recourse to 
netting and other means to keep down the pike in Loch Tulla, and in its 
tributary streams, especially the Luine-nan-Beathach. 
That pike have long been a scourge to salmon fry and trout in the lochs of 
the Trossachs district is shown by the following extract from the account of the 
parish of Callander, taken from Sir John Sinclair's Statistical Account of 
Scotland published about a hundred years ago. 'Salmon,' says the writer, 
' are found in the Teith and in the northern branch thereof, all the way to 
[ Balquhidder. They are much more rare in the southern branch, owing, 
■t probably, to the large pikes in Loch Venachar and Loch Achray, which 
* are enemies to other fish. Trouts abound in all the lakes and streams of 
' this parish ; and parrs in every stream. Whitings, which some fisher- 
{ men say are young salmon, which others reckon a distinct species of 
1 trout, are common in the Teith in July and August. Pikes and jacks 
1 are very numerous in Loch Venachar and Loch Achray, in the south 
1 branch of the Teith, and in some stagnant pools near Callander. They 
< grow to a large size, and are frequently caught from 11 to 20 lbs. each. 
\ They may be taken at all times with bait, for which parr are esteemed 
best ; but they are most esteemed in June, July, and August.' 
