The Sea Pool 



passes one's footsteps send shov/ers of yellow pollen to the 

 ground. It is now that the midges are most plentiful, and 

 I have more than once been almost compelled to leave the 

 river bank, so violent were their onslaughts. 



With September come the small sea trout or "finnocks," 

 and the sea pool is peopled with them until the end of 

 October, when fishing closes. These fish do not run far 

 up the river, and many of them do not penetrate beyond 

 the sea pool. In size they average about half a pound, and 

 give very fine sport. I think they come best to the fly 

 of an evening in late September, after sunset, and when 

 the tide is just on the turn. The spring tides in these parts 

 are at the full a little after six o'clock in the evening, and 

 when, after damming back the pool, they recede once more, 

 the sea trout instantly come on the take, and seem to be quite 

 unaffected by the number of victims drawn from the pool. 

 At such times mergansers often swim in from the sea loch 

 and haunt the waters. Very industrious fishers are they, 

 and it is indeed a sign of ill omen to the human angler 

 should they rise from the pool at his approach. 



An old Highland story is sometimes told of the Glen 

 of the Sea Pool. A certain noted hunter — Ian Mor, by 

 name — killed a fine stag in the glen and conveyed it by 

 night to his home nearly five miles distant. In those days 

 the fairy people — or "Sithean," as they are known in the 

 Gaelic — played a great part in men's lives, and many 

 charms were used to counteract their influence, which was 

 not always beneficial. On this occasion the fairies laid an 

 invisible weight on the stag, a common practice of theirs, 

 and on Ian Mor confessing to his companion that he felt 

 as though he had the house on his back, his friend stuck 

 his knife into the deer — this was a sure charm against fairy 

 influence — and the animal at once became immensely 

 lighter. 



With October, the last month of the fishing, there comes 

 a keen edge to the wind, and before the advance of the 



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