NOTES ON SALMONID/E 17 



and how to manipulate some rather intricate " placies," 

 by John Sutherland (than whom there was none knew 

 better how). Fish ran earlier in the season then, but a 

 difference in this respect very soon began to show after a 

 considerable increase in the number and length of the 

 Clachtoll nets took place. On the nth of June 1867 I 

 well remember a particularly lovely basket I made on the 

 Upper Inver all with a blue salmon fly. It was as 

 follows : a fresh-run salmon of 1 6 Ibs., a fresh grilse of 

 6 Ibs., 1 a brown trout of 4 Ibs., another of 2^- Ibs., and three 

 i Ib. trouts. On the same day my friend, W. H. Jesse, 

 killed on the trout- reaches above, thirty- five trout weigh- 

 ing 40 Ibs. Not many salmon are now killed I fancy 

 in June or May ; indeed it is seldom fished except for 

 trout. 



In those days our fishing was by permission of the 

 Duke's factor, and my friends and myself used to have as 

 much of it as we cared for. But we had other objects in 

 view at that time, so did not use our opportunities as fully 

 as we might have done. Our principal objects in those days 

 were in the naturalist's line collecting birds and birds' eggs. 

 My first introduction to Assynt was by my good friend, Dr. 

 H. H. Almond, to whom I hope I am for ever grateful. For 

 several years he and I fished there together, and later both 

 he and I took the fishings of the rivers Kirkaig and Inver, 

 independently, however, of one another. Before then he and 

 I were, during two seasons, presented with the fishings of 

 the Upper Inver, which in those days went with the shootings 

 of Inchnadamph, in the first instance by the brothers 

 Moncrieff, who cared only for the deer-stalking and shooting ; 

 and in the second and succeeding year by three gentlemen, 

 Scott, Wells, and King, who also preferred the " fery deer 

 themselves." Then Mr. Whitbread took the Assynt 

 shootings on a lease, and for many years sublet the Inver 

 to our party of four. We also secured the Kirkaig, the 

 sister-river, and we fished the two from Lochinver Hotel, 

 and at times from Inchnadamph. 



From about the date of 1872 the first new ova were 



1 A very early date for grilse, November 1901. I suspect it was a small 

 salmon. 



41 c 



