of the fishery Board for Scotland, 
9 
paniments of pollution have changed this for the worse. In The Book 
of Dumbarton we are told that, in the latter part of the 18th century, 
the magistrates and council of Dumbarton leased the Salmon Fishings in 
the Clyde and Leven to the different incorporations at £24, 10s. yearly, 
with a stipulation that the inhabitants were to be supplied with salmon 
and trout at 2d. per tron pound from the beginning to the middle of the 
season, and at IJd. from the middle of the season to the end. In 1794 
the fishings were let to an English company for £106 per annum. 
Even in the last decade of the 18th century salmon seem to have been 
comparatively plentiful and cheap, as we are told in Sir John Sinclair's 
Statistical Account of Scotland that : — 
Salmon and trout are taken in large quantities. The former frequently sells 
so high as Is. 6d. per pound tron on the spot, seldom falls below 6d., and never 
below 4d. Through the whole spring season the Leven salmon is excellent, but 
the Clyde is not fished before Whitsunday. Trout generally sells at 4d. per 
pound. 
Last year, as will be stated more fully further on, the rod-fishing on 
Loch Lomond was unusually good, as there was no netting in the Leven. 
But it seems quite clear to me that, if the Leven were let for netting and 
was netted severely, as it would probably be by the lessee of the fishings, 
the combination of netting with the manifold pollutions from the print- 
works on the Leven, would entirely ruin the salmon and sea trout angling 
in Loch Lomond until the close of the netting season, — that is until the 
27th August. Surely the lovers of angling in the great capital of the 
west might come to some arrangement with the proprietors of the Leven 
which would prevent the possibility of such a catastrophe. How much 
the fisliing for the migratory salmonidae in Loch Lomond depends on their 
having free access through the Leven, may be gathered from the following 
passage from the account of the parish of Buchanan in the first Statistical 
Account of Scotland. ' Salmon,' says the writer — 
Was more plentiful last year on this (the Buchanan side of the loch) than 
for many years past, owing to the stakes and nets upon the mouth of the Leven, 
to prevent the fish from coming up, being removed. 
About five minutes walk from the hotel at Luss, and not far from the Obstructive 
mouth of the Luss River, there is a formidable dam with a very inefficient ^^^^^ 
fish-pass on it, which seriously obstructs the passage of salmon and sea 
trout to the excellent spawning beds above. The dam is about 8 feet in 
perpendicular height, and there is no heck either on the intake or the tail- 
lade connected with it. 
This dam might easily and at small expense, not exceeding £20, 
be made passable for salmon. The best plan, in my opinion, would be to 
construct a partial subsidiary dam 3 or 3| feet in height, stretching from 
the second wooden strut on the main dam, counting from the right bank 
of the river to the first alder bush on the right l»ank below the main 
dam. There is a cut into the crest of the dam at present close to the right 
bank, which lowers the height about 3 feet, and there is a sloping, smooth 
wooden shoot, with wooden sides, just above a perpendicular jump of 5 
feet from the water below, up which it is said sea trout occasionally 
ascend when the water is high. The construction of the subsidiary dam 
which I recommend would give an easy jump to the foot of this shoot. 
But, us a surface of smooth wooden planking is about the worst thing 
possible for a tish to surmount, it would be advisable to nail upon it, at 
intervals of 6 inches, small cross pieces of wood a couple of inches high 
to roughen the surface of the shoot and break the velocity of the water. 
