12 Appendices to Tenth Annual Report 
' being opened up, though neither the fall nor the river above it are his 
' property. But for the operation of these three causes, we believe that 
' many of the natural obstructions in our Scotch salmon rivers would by 
' this time have been made passable.' 
The second and third of the causes above enumerated do not operate in 
Ireland ; and in that country we accordingly find that the most success- 
ful and remunerative attempts have been made to open up natural 
obstructions by means of salmon ladders. 
The most remarkable of these attempts was made about thirty years ago 
on the Ballisodare River, which falls into a southerly branch of Sligo Bay, 
on the west coast of Ireland. The Ballisodare has a drainage area of 
nearly 300 square miles. It is formed by the junction of two streams — 
the Arrow and the Owell — the former of which flows through Loch Arrow, 
a fine lake 5 miles long and nearly a mile wide. 
The obstructions on the river are three in number, and are of the most 
formidable character — the least of them being more difficult to overcome 
than the Falls of Tummel. Previously to the erection of the ladders, the 
Ballisodare River never contained a single salmon * since the erection of 
the ladders, it has produced from 8,000 to 10,000 salmon annually. In 
the latter part of June last, I carefully inspected these ladders by the 
direction of the Fishery Board. 
The obstructions consist of a perpendicular rock 22 feet in height, 
stretching across the whole breadth of the mouth of the river, just where 
it falls into the sea. When the river is in flood it dashes over the rock 
in a splendid cascade, which tourists come from a great distance to see. 
The ladder is on the right bank of the river. Its mouth enters the chief 
pool below the falls, where the principal lie of the fish is. It is on the 
pool-and-jump system ; the stops, formed of stone, each crossing the 
whole breadth of the ladder, with the exception of about a foot, where 
there is a free opening down to the floor of the ladder. The gradient is 
so easy — about 1 in 10 or 11 — that the salmon never jump from 
pool to pool, but swim up through the openings left at the end of the 
stops. As many as sixty-seven salmon have been counted going up this 
ladder in the course of an hour. The ladder is in two parts, which form 
an angle with each other. The pools in the lower part are very spacious 
— about 9 feet square. 
A short distauce above the first fall is the second, a perpendicular 
rock 12 feet high, termed the • Pothole.' Here there is a second ladder, 
on the same principle of construction as the first, with this exception, 
that for a short distance above where it enters the pool below the fail it 
passes through a tunnel cut in the rock. 
The third and last obstruction occurs at Collooney, about a mile above 
the f Pothole.' Here there is a perpendicular rock, 22 feet 6 inches 
in height, and a ladder of the same description as those on the two lower 
falls, with this addition, that at the junction of the two branches of the 
ladder there is a spacious resting-pool about 15 feet square. At the top 
of each of the ladders above described there are sluices regulating the flow 
of water. 
I was informed that the cost of the ladders above described was 
£7000 ; and I was a* the same time told that the clear profit of the 
Fishery opened up by them, after paying all expenses, including the ex- 
pense of a hatchery, averages about £1500 a year — certainly a handsome 
return for the outlay. 
There is a good deal of rocky ground in the bed of the Ballisodare 
River unsuitable for spawning. But on the main stream and its two 
chief tributaries there are at least 7 miles of fine gravelly spawning 
f 
