of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 
NOTE IV. 
BEP( >RT BY MR YOUNG, INSPECTOR OF SALMON FISHERIES 
ON A COMPLAINT MADE TO THE FISHERY BOARD 
FOR SCOTLAND BY THE DISTRICT BOARD OF THE 
RIVER AWE, OF AN ARTIFICIAL OBSTRUCTION IN THE 
LOWER PART OF THAT RIVER, ILLEGALLY INTERFER- 
ING WITH THE FREE PASSAGE OF SALMON TO THE 
UPPER WATERS. 
Edinburgh, 9th December 1891. 
I have the honour to report that I have carefully read over and con- 
sidered a letter to the Secretary of the Fishery Board for Scotland from 
the Clerk to the Awe District Board, complaining of an artificial obstruc- 
tion to the free passage of salmon near the mouth of the River Awe, 
where the fishings belong to Mr Campbell of Lochnell. 
There is a very close analogy between this obstruction in the Awe and 
that lately brought under the notice of this Board by the Spey District 
Board, which is situated on the Truim, and which was condemned by 
this Board at their last meeting as illegal. There are, of course, certain 
differences in detail in the two cases, but the principles which regulate 
and the laws which apply to both are identical ; and I venture to think 
that this Board, after having condemned the obstruction on the Truim 
as an illegal interference with the channel of the stream, is bound to pro- 
nounce 8, similar judgment on the obstruction in the Awe. 
That obstruction is thus described by Mr Macarthur, Clerk to the Awe 
District Board, in his letter of 28th November last : — 1 I have been 
' instructed by the Awe District Fishery Board to report to you an 
' obstruction which has recently been placed on the River Awe, and 
' which my Board consider to be detrimental to the fishing of the district, 
' in respect that it compels all the salmon ascending the river to pass over 
' the netted ground belonging to Lochnell Estate, whereas a number of 
' fish in the former state of the river were able to pass round by the 
' stream that has been obstructed, and gain the River Awe at a point 
' beyond where the nets are drawn.' 
' The obstruction consists of a concrete wall 108 \ feet in length, with 
' an average breadth of 6 feet, the height running fron 2 feet 7 inches to 3 
4 feet. It is placed across a side stream from the main river, which flows 
' round a piece of ground of about 3 acres in extent, forming it into an island 
' between the two streams. It is on the river side of this island that the 
' nets are principally drawn. Hitherto when the tide was in, a portion of 
* the fish found their way up the river by the side stream and thus escaped 
* the nets. 
' It appears that from time to time a sort of causeway was put at the issue 
* of the stream from the river so as to prevent the river itself diverging 
' in that direction, but the present is the first occasion that so serious an 
' obstruction has been placed there.' 
From the above description, it is evident that, by purely artificial means, 
a channel by which salmon found their way to the upper waters has been 
entirely and throughly blocked up, and that all the salmon passing up the 
