SPOKT OF BUTE. 131 



brought me a basket of five very broad-shaped fish 

 with red fins, like the bream or " braise " of Loch 

 Lomond. They were more than a pound in weight, 

 and he only asked a penny for each, and was 

 quite pleased with sixpence for the lot. He called 

 them "silver baddies," but I rather think "sea 

 perch" is the proper name. He caught them with 

 a hand-line, and a bit of herring for bait. During 

 a whole season I fished Loch Long very success- 

 fully, both with herring and mussel bait, and with 

 hand and long lines, but I never either caught or 

 heard of this "silver haddy" in that branch sea- 

 loch of the Firth of Clyde. 



When driving along the Kyles for a day's par- 

 tridge-shooting on one of the northern farms of 

 Bute, a whale of about 30 feet long rose close to 

 the shore. On overtaking the gillie, whom we 

 had sent forward with the evening relay of dogs, 

 he assured us with a face of awe that the whale 

 had become dangerous in the night, and driven the 

 fishermen ashore. Had it been one of the Arctic 

 whales, not unfrequent in the Sound of Mull, the 

 angry freak of the leviathan would have been char- 

 acteristic enough; but as the present monster of 



