of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 
17 
gradient the better. Narrow pieces of board might be nailed at intervals 
on each side of the wooden shoot. The bottom of the shoot where it 
enters the pool should be somewhat wider than the top of it above the 
fall. I should state that this plan has never been tried, and might not 
prove successful. But it is quite clear that if it did succeed, it would 
be very much cheaper than making a fish-pass by blasting the solid rock. 
But the obstructions on the Thraill do not end With this fall, for there 
is still another impassable obstacle before we reach Loch Nam Fiad. 
This consists of a waterfall, not so formidable as that immediately below 
it, but still, as it stands, presenting an absolute barrier to the ascent of 
salmon. If it is to be made passable, I would venture to recommend the 
construction of a subsidiary dam, about 4J feet high, beueath the lower 
branch of the fall, and a good deal of cutting would also be required in 
the upper branch of the fall on the left bank ; I am clearly of opinion, 
however, that it would not be worth while to incur the expense that 
would be required to make all the impediments on this rapid mountain 
stream passable for salmon. But the loch near the mouth might possibly 
be formed, and the rapid, which is the lowest of the obstructions, might 
be made accessible by the means I have already recommended, so as to 
allow salmon to ascend as far as the long, deep, dark pool at the foot of 
the perpendicular fall above the rapid, for a much less sum than it would 
require to overcome all the obstructions so as to allow salmon to have free 
access into Loch Nam Fiad. 
I afterwards carefully inspected the Balgay river and falls. The Balgay The Balgay 
has a short course of somewhat more than a mile, issuing from Loch River and 
Damph and flowing into Upper Loch Torridon. It has a very small Falls- 
drainage area — only about 9 square miles. Loch Damph is encompassed 
by lofty and picturesque mountains. It is nearly 4 miles long, with an 
average width of half a mile, and some of its feeders have excellent 
spawning ground. 
There can be no doubt that previously to the passing of the Salmon 
Fishery Acts of 1862 and 1868, the rod fishing for salmon in the Balgay, 
Torridon, and other rivers flowing into Loch Torridon, was very much 
better than it is at present. In his memorandum on the decay of the 
salmon fishings in the rivers flowing into Loch Torridon, which is dated 
23d December 1 884, and which is published in my third Report on the 
Salmon Fisheries of Scotland, Mr Darroch of Torridon writes as follows : 
— ' The river Balgay and Torridon, with Loch-an-Iasgaiche, have been 
' noted salmon waters from time immemorial, so much so that in deed 
' after deed from the year 1624 they have been specially conveyed by 
1 name ; the half of the fishing of the short river Balgay even being thought 
1 in 1624 worthy of beiug split into two further equal parts between the 
' representatives of the two heirs portioners of Donald of the Isles ; and 
' it is the fishing of these waters, so jealously guarded for hundreds of 
' years, which has been wrested from the Crown grantees by the fixed nets 
' authorised by the Act of 1862. The fishings of the Balgay were valuable 
1 enough to induce the late Sir John Stuart to go to law with Colonel 
' M'Barnet, late of Torridon, for their exclusive possession, and that too, 
' not only through all the Scotch Courts, but even up to the House of 
' Lords. There is ample evidence of the fishing having been most productive 
' during the early part of this century, and fairly so up to about 1863.' 
The subsequent falling off is generally, and I think justly, attributed 
to the estuary line fixed by the Commissioners of Scotch Salmon Fisheries. 
The bye-law fixing this took effect from 11th March 1865. The estuary 
for the Torridon, Balgay, and Shieldag is thereby defined to be 'a straight 
' line drawn across the Narrows between Loch Shieldag, and outer Loch 
