144 ANGLERS' EVENINGS. 



And then he speaks about 



"The celebrated river Shin, the best in Sutherlandshire, and the best I 

 have ever fished in. Last season (that would be the year 1849, as the work 

 was published in 1S50) I killed fifty-four salmon in it in fifty-five hours." 



I have also been favoured with recent information 

 about the angling on the Shin by Mr. George Young, 

 the manager of the Duke of Sutherland's fi.shings at 

 Invershin : — 



"The Shin is an early river, as an average of four salmon a day has 

 been caught in a mild spring after the lith February — the opening day of 

 the season ; but in April and May this number has been exceeded by good 

 anglers, and salmon of thirty-five pounds weight caught. Previous to the 

 year 1865 there was a cruive fished regularly every lawful day ; yet in the 

 month of July of 1864 two rods caught two hundred and twenty-eight 

 salmon and grilse. Thirty-eight fish was about the largest number of one 

 day's catch. June is hardly such a good month for grilse, as they are small 

 and not so numerous until about the end of that month. The month of 

 August is not so good for angling below the big fall as in July ; but there 

 are good pools above it where in this month in favourable seasons it is second 

 to none in the county. I consider the Shin still up to the mark as the best 

 angling and spawning river in the north." 



The Shin is let by the month, and the angling alone 

 from the big fall dovvai to the mouth of the river — about 

 a mile and three quarters — produces ;^500 a year. It 

 should, perhaps, be stated that the above-mentioned 

 angling feats were all accomplished with the fly, which, 

 on the Sutherland rivers, so far as I am aware, is the 

 universal lure used in the capture of salmon ; and long 

 may it remain so ! 



There seems good reason for the belief that the high 

 character given by "Ephemera" to the Sutherland rivers 

 is still, after the lapse of thirty years, fully maintained ; 



