Columns and Letters

On the shores of Hogamah

Then and Now – the Heritage of Inverness County- Jim St.Clair

Along the shore of Hogamah

The Rankin family song, the Mull River Shuffle  includes a somewhat altered version of a much earlier ditty, but their rendering suits their style and the occasion. It mentions their uncle, Danny Wright, a great favourite of theirs.

“Danny Wright had a light...waiting for the fish to bite, 

Along the shores of Cocomagh (Hogomah, more often).”

While it is unlikely that Danny ever waited along the shore of the lake, he was quite familiar with the area and descended from some of the earliest Scottish settlers. 

Indeed one of his granduncles was a fish warden who sat with his back to the window of his house so that he could not see the people scouting the river and shore after dark with lanterns. When asked why he didn’t sit so he could see them and then go out and fine them, he is said to have replied that they were his neighbours and relatives and he couldn’t do that.

So many stories about people arriving at the foot of Salt Mountain, like the MacDonalds from North Uist and others  And then there are those who departed for lives in distant places such as the very early merchant, Ewen Campbell, who was born in Skye, grew up at North Lake Ainslie, opened a store along the shore of Whycocomagh in the late 1830s. With the financial help from his father, Archibald, a one-time school teacher in Scotland, he built his own ocean-going schooner at the shore. 

After selling his store and goods, he set sail back to Scotland where he studied for the Presbyterian ministry and was for some years the minister at Benbecula, the island between North and South Uist, and participated in the inquiries into the mistreatment of many people during the Clearances, the investigation known as the Napier Commission. So far as known he never returned to the shores of Whycocomagh Bay. His nephew, John Campbell MacKinnon (1848-1897), however, followed in his uncle’s steps and went to Scotland to study and was ordained there in 1883. He left his birthplace in New Canada (Rosedale) for the old country on board a vessel docked in Whycocomagh.

Several early residents were whole or part owners of ocean-going trading vessels. According to the 1871 census, Dr. John MacIntosh and the merchant Peter MacDonald had invested in ships and reported shares in separate schooners of 14 tons each. The names of the boats are not to be found. Does anybody know? Or have pictures of the sailing boats? 

Fishing along the shores of Hogamah

While it is unlikely that Danny Wright of Mull River ever fished along the shores of Hogamah except in verse and song, many people did. There no longer seems to be any commercial fishery along the shores today, although much pleasure boating. 

But according to the 1871 census, the Sylliboys, the Noels (Newell is the alternate spelling), and the Googoos of the First Nations end of the shore of Whycocomagh were very active in taking in salmon, eels, trout, mackerel and cod, but also processed their catches to prepare sixty gallons of fish oil for sale in the year 1870.

At the other end of the Whycocomagh Bay, seven boats and fifteen men engaged in fishing with seventy-eight fathoms of nets. They reported taking in fourteen quintals of cod, three barrels of herring and thirty barrels of “other fish” as well as a small amount (one quarter barrel) of trout. As well, they prepared five gallons of fish oil use or for sale. 

These people on the North Side were Mathesons, MacDonalds, MacLeans, MacLeods, Frasers and Carmichaels and seem to have lived between Aberdeen and the North Side post office area. To be sure, we have no record of the number of people who engaged in fishing for their own households, both through the ice in the winter or “along the shores of Hogamah” in the spring and summer. No doubt a number of people had small boats and fishing lines for their personal use. Some people as well had their own ice boats which were used for racing across the bay in the winter to the joy of participants. Since these had no commercial value, they are not reported on the census record. 

The 1871 census does reveal that the amount of commercial fishing was considerable and of much value to the local economy. It does not record the number of steam-powered vessels which

called at the docks. But the stories of the Blue Hill and the Marion and other such boats are numerous and require a whole column to themselves for their role in life along the “Shores of Hogamah.” Who will write a new song about the beautiful bay and the adjacent village and mountains?

 


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