NOTES ON BRITISH SALMONID/E 21 



there to the angler, or, otherwise they will not rise to the 

 surface. 



Any of the large fish which are caught in Loch Eilt 

 earlier than the summer run are invariably (what I call) 

 " black fish," i.e. they are fish which ran in April and May ; 

 and even the fish of about I lb., which are got then, are also 

 black. Nearly all got in the loch are captured by spinning 

 baits and not with fly, though, some days, fly kills a few. 



On the Ailort any fish over ^ lb. are looked upon by 

 natives and fishermen as adult, if small, sea-trout, and any of 

 lesser sizes are reckoned their grilses or " finnocks." l 



The watchers tell me that " finnocks " continue to run 

 till, or into, September, by which season the big, old fish 

 have taken up their spawning grounds mainly in the sandy 

 and gravelly bays of the loch. 



Having thus so far endeavoured to give some facts about 

 the Ailort river, I propose now to say a few words about 

 the Morar. For these I am mainly indebted to my friend 

 Mr. T. E. Buckley, who collected the information when 

 fishing there during May, June, and July 1900. 



In reading these notes it may be well to compare them 

 with the notes on the Ailort ; and to facilitate this being 

 done, I will try to keep them in a similar order. 



The Morar river is about 700 yards long in all (Ailort 

 i^- miles), and flows from a large loch of the same name. 

 There is no intermediate loch like the Dhuloch of the 

 Ailort, but there is a fall pool, or resting pool, as on the 

 sister-river. This is situated only about 250 yards from the 

 sea, and between it and the sea there are only two pools 

 where salmon are usually caught by fly. As on the Ailort, 

 sea-trout, after reaching the resting pool, will hardly ever look 

 at anything but the worm, of which they are inordinately fond. 

 After these fish leave the fall pool and go up into Loch 

 Morar, they are of no further use to the angler with fly, and 

 indeed of very little use at all to the sportsman. Therefore, 

 it may be more permissible to take toll with worm in the 

 resting pool of Morar than to do so in that of Ailort. 



On the Morar sea-trout do not appear in the river at all 



1 " Finnock " is really a word better known on our east coast as expressing 

 the young of the sea-trout. 



