Report on Salmon Fisheries. 
ix 
The opening up of these Falls was recommended, so far back as 
1871, by Mr Frank Buckland and Mr Young in their Report on the 
effect of recent legislation on the Salmon Fisheries of Scotland ; 
and, in 1884, Mr Young, after having personally minutely inspected 
the whole extent of the rivers and lochs above the Falls of the 
Tummel, made a Special Report to the Fishery Board for Scotland 
on the subject ; and, after receiving and considering that Report, 
the Board passed the following resolution, and published it in their 
Report to Parliament:- — ' The Board having considered the Report 
* by Mr Young on the opening of Rivers and Lochs, now closed 
* against salmon by the existence of such obstructions as the Falls 
' of Tummel, the Falls of Mounessie, and the Falls of the Conon, 
* approve of said Report, and, having regard to the extensive area 
' of spawning and angling water which would be opened up in 
' different districts of Scotland by the removal of such obstructions 
' and the introduction of an efficient fish- way, resolve to transmit a 
' copy of said Report to the Secretary of State, with a request that 
' a short Act should be brought in by the Government giving Dis- 
' trict Boards the requisite compulsory powers, subject to such 
* control, on the part of this Board or otherwise, as may be con- 
* sidered just.' 
It will thus be seen that both the Fishery Board for Scotland Both Fishery 
and the Inspector of Salmon Fisheries have recommended the fc^atkiid^aud 
opening up of the Falls of Tummel and similar obstructions on the inspector of 
salmon rivers of Scotland in the strongest and most unequivocal l^g^g^^eg ^ave 
manner. But as yet entirely without effect. For, as the law at strongly and 
present stands, if the proprietors of the Falls refuse to allow them recoJjnfeuded 
to be interfered with, so as to make them passable for salmon, the opening up of 
District Board of the river is powerless ; and even if all the pro- ^J^jJ^jj^gj 
prietors above and below the Falls are agreed as to the necessity 
of having them opened up, so as to increase the productiveness of 
the river, and are willing to pay the cost, nothing can be done. 
District Boards have, indeed, under the 13th section of 'The 
' Salmon Fisheries (Scotland) Act, 1868,' the power to remove any 
' natural obstruction to the passage of fish in the bed of a river, or 
' to attach a fish-pass to any waterfall,' but only ' by agreement' so 
that, if the proprietor, or proprietors of the waterfall refuse to agree 
to its being made passable for salmon, the District Board is help- 
less. It has no compulsory powers, under any circumstances or 
conditions ; and the recommendation of this Board, in their Report 
of 1884, that a short Act should be passed by the Government 
giving District Boards compulsory powers, under certain conditions 
and restrictions, to make such obstructions as the Falls of Tummel 
passable for salmon, still remains a dead letter.* 
* In a letter, dated 28th March 1890, Mr P. D. Malloch, the well-known fishing- 
tackle maker and naturalist, Perth, gives some interesting information with regard to 
the specification and plan of an Automatic Fish-Pass patented by him, whicli were 
published in the Notes to the Eighth Report of the Inspector of Salmon Fisheries. 
Mr Malloch writes as follows : — * In places where there are existing cruives, t1ie pass 
' can bo let into the dyke, that is, without any sides to it — ^just merely boarded over 
* on the top. In places like the Falls of Tummel I would propose to cut a lead about 
* 4 or 5 feet wide round the rock on the Bonskeid side, and run it into the pot where 
' all the fish lie, and place the sluice near where it goes into the pot; or a little tunnel 
* could be cut through the rock, and the sluice inserted into the rock and covered 
' over on the top, so that no one would know such a thing was there. I have got 
* a little model almost completed. I will be very glad to show it working.' 
