14 
Appendices to Tenth Annual Report 
foot thick, and have passages down to the floor of the ladder, at their 
extremities, about 16 inches wide. There are intervals of 3 feet between 
the steps. The ladder is very rarely completely dry, and that only when 
the river is exceptionally low. The least flood gives it a sufficient supply 
of water for salmon to ascend. 
Why do we not follow such good examples'? There are far better 
opportunities in Scotland than in Ireland for creating and developing new 
salmon fisheries, if we would only take advantage of them. 
River In the beginning of July last, I inspected the river Moriston, which 
Moriston. joins Loch Ness at Invermoriston. The Moriston flows for 20 miles 
through Glen Moriston (the valley of the great cascades), and falls into 
Loch Ness 7 miles north-north-east of Fort Augustus. It rises in Loch 
Clunie, a loch about 5 miles long and half a mile in extreme width, into 
the head of which falls the Clunie, a stream nearly 5 miles long. The 
Moriston is quite a model of a small salmon river, abounding in fine 
streams and pools. But half a mile or so above its junction with Loch 
Ness, the whole body of the river rushes over a rock 28 feet in height 
into a deep spacious pool below. Such a barrier, of course, is utterly 
insurmountable by salmon in any state of the river. But this barrier has 
been, to a certain extent, overcome by a salmon-ladder, which has enabled 
fish to reach the long stretch of river above, and to take advantage of the 
fine spawning-grounds. The catchment basin of the Moriston is 158 
square miles.* 
The possibility of turning the Moriston, like the Ballisodare River in 
Ireland, from a trout into a salmon river, was first brought under my 
notice by the late Mr Thomas Stoddart, author of the Anglers' Companion 
to the Rivers and Lochs of Scotland, w T ho wrote me as follows on ihe 21st 
March 1870 : — ' In any survey you may be called to make of our Northern 
' Rivers it strikes me that some attention should be paid to the Moriston 
' in its capability of being converted from a mere trouting stream into 
1 one of the finest salmon rivers in Scotland, and that at a comparatively 
1 small cost. In the course of an angling tour I took in the autumn of 
{ 1866 with the Sheriff of Lanarkshire — Glassford Bell — we had occasion 
' to pass down Glen Moriston on our way from Glen Sheil to Inverness, 
' and I was greatly struck with the range of splendid breeding-ground 
' comprehended in the course of the river on its leaving Loch Clunie, 
' which of itself would furnish a fine receptacle for salmon.' 
Since the above was written, a salmon-ladder has been constructed on 
the left bank of the river, by which salmon have been enabled to surmount 
the falls ; but as yet not in sufficient numbers to repay the cost which 
has been incurred, which, I was informed, amounts to nearly ,£2000. But 
efforts are still being made to improve the ladder, which are, I venture fcu 
think, likely to be crowned with ultimate success. When I visited the 
river in July last it was in full floo'l, and there was a strong current in 
that part of it between the foot of the falls and Loch Ness, which, 
when the stream is low, is generally comparatively still and quiescent. 
From sixty to seventy salmon have been seen to pass the ladder in a year, 
and they have been caught 16 miles above the falls. No grilse have as 
yet been got ; but a number of parr have been seen, showing that the 
fish have bred in the river. Possibly the cutting of a passage outside 
the river round the falls on the right bank, as recommended by Mr 
