SUTHERLAND. 165 



familiar Lancashire scene comes into view, in the shape 

 of some very comfortable brick-built dwelling-houses of 

 Sutherland clay and manufacture — a great rarity in the 

 Highlands. 



About twelve miles beyond Brora the river Hehnsdale 

 enters the sea at the village of that name. The angling 

 on this river is let out to several rods. The spring fishing 

 is excellent. Last year, up to May ist, five rods killed 

 two hundred and fifty fish. Helmsdale has, for a long 

 time, been an important herring-fishing station. The 

 fishing season is in July and August, at which time this 

 is an interesting place to visit. 



At the head of Kildonan Strath, a further distance 

 from Helmsdale of about twenty-five miles, is the railway 

 station of Forsinard, where there is a small inn, from 

 which several excellent lochs can be fished within 

 reasonable distances. Forsinard has, since the intro- 

 duction of the railway, acquired high repute as a fishing 

 station. The author of the Ramble throiigJL Sutherland, 

 before referred to, says that on Loch Leum-a-Chlamhain, 

 Loch Badanloch, and Loch-a-Ruiar, he and two friends 

 in five days killed, with the fly, six hundred trout, 

 weighing four hundred pounds. This gives an average 

 of forty trout of nearly twenty-seven pounds weight 

 per rod per day. It is no wonder after this that " The 

 Rambler" seems inclined to consider that the lochs 

 of this basin afford the best trout angling in Scotland. 

 The trout in this district are red fleshed, and of very fine 

 flavour. Loch Sletill — a small loch a few miles from the 

 inn — has acquired a great name for the size and quality 



