of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 
13 
salmon parr is yellow trout, ' little sharks ' on the salmon spawning beds and 
for tlie year during which the young of salmon are par. 
Protection. 
The Association employs four watchers, who commence their duties about the 
middle of October, and continue till about the middle of December ; and during 
seventeen years it has been found that poaching or illegal fishing has not been 
common in the districts supervised. Four pike-netters are also annually em- 
ployed, who commence work about the middle of February and continue till 
the end of April, being the period durinpj which pike betake themselves to 
bays for the purpose of spawning, when they are most easily captured. The 
number of pike caj)tured by these netters last year was as follows : — 
Pike Weight, 
caught. lbs. 
On Lochs Ard and Chon ... 45 355 
„ Loch Katrine 142 907 
„ Loch Lomond (head) ... 78 564 
„ „ (Luss) ... 191 1224 
Total 456 3050 
Propagation of Fish. 
Natural spawning is in all cases considered best, and in the estimation of the 
Association artificial means should oidy be resorted to in extreme cases. 
Wild Birds Protection Act, 1880. 
Trout spawn in small streams, where the young trout are easily caught by 
wild birds during the drought of summer, and this applies particularly to all 
Highland lochs where the streams dry up, leaving only pools quite full of 
young fish. Watchers should have full power to shoot wild birds when seen 
in the vicinity of streams.* 
In the end of June last I inspected the river Oude, which runs into Inspection of 
the head of Loch Melfort, through the beautiful Pass of Melfort, and ^j^^^L^^jJ'^^ 
Loch Tralaig, from which it flows. Tralai«^^ 
The lower ])art of the Oude is frequented by salmon, and near its 
junction with Loch Melfort there are some capital pools, which have 
been created or greatly improved by artificial means ; and in the end 
of last century there was a regular salmon fishing station upon Loch 
Melfort itself, where tlie Oude joins the si^u. But, about a mile-and-a- 
lialf up the river, there is a considerable waterfall which entirely pre- 
vents the ascent of salmon into the upper river and into Loch Tralaig, 
the fine natural reservoir from which it flows. 
This fall is not far from Culfail Hotel, and the descent to it from the 
high road is very precipitous. The fall is at least 12 feel in height. 
The pool below it supplies a mill, and the intake-lade is at the corner of 
the pool. Between the lower part of the pool and the fall there is a 
large mass of boulders, forming a sort of island in the centre of the pool, 
which might easily be extended so as to form a subsidiary dani, raising 
the water 5 feet on the face of the main fall. Then, the stream which 
flows over the central part of the fall should be deepened, beginning 
30 yards above the fall, and blasted out towards the top of the fall ; and 
if this were judiciously and thoroughly done, I think that salmon might 
get up. 
Another plan would be — still keeping the subsidiary dam — to deepen 
and widen a channel on the left bank of the stream, which at present is 
* A copy ol the queries addressed to District Boards, and to hotel-keepers having 
salmon or trout fisliings attached to their hotels, forms Note IL to this Report. 
