146 FIELD NOTES FOR THE YEAR. 



the swindler told the landlady that he was sorry to say the 

 fisherman had got quite drunk, notwithstanding all the 

 efforts he had made to prevent it, and all the good advice he 

 had given him. When at length the poor fellow recovered 

 his senses and power of speech, he found it quite impossible 

 to persuade his wife and friends that he had not wilfully and 

 advisedly got drunk and squandered his money. However at 

 last the fair one was pacified, though not much comforted, 

 her husband's innocence being proved by the testimony of 

 others who had been robbed in a similar manner ; and by the 

 verdict of the doctor, who at once saw that some strong 

 narcotic had been given to the man. 



Among the available products of the sandy creeks and 

 bays on this coast are immense quantities of excellent 

 flounders. These fish come in with every tide, and though 

 the great bulk of them return to deep water, vast numbers 

 remain in the pools which are formed at low water upon the 

 sands. We occasionally drag some of these pools with a 

 small trout-net, and are sure to catch a large quantity of 

 these fish in one or two hauls. The flounders are of two 

 kinds, the grey-backed flounder and a larger sort which has 

 red spots. The latter, however, is a far inferior fish, the 

 flesh being soft and flabby. Notwithstanding the abundance 

 and excellence of the flounders, left, as it were, for any person 

 to pick up, with scarcely any exertion, the country people 

 very seldom take the trouble to catch them,. excepting now 

 and then by the line, in a lazy, inefficient way. 



July, although not a month during which the sportsman 

 finds much employment for his gun, is still to me a most 

 interesting season. Every day that I walk by the lochs and 

 swamps I see fresh arrivals in the shape of broods and flocks 

 of young teal and wild ducks, and this year there are 

 numbers of pochards swimming about in compact companies. 

 Occasionally, too, when walking near the covers an old roe, 

 accompanied by her two large-eyed fawns, bounds out of 

 some clump of juniper or brambles ; and after standing for 

 a short time to take a good look at me, springs into the wood 

 and is soon lost to view, or an old solitary buck, driven by 

 the midges from the damp shades of the woods, startles me 

 by his sudden appearance near the loch side, springing over 

 the furze and broom, on his way back to the more extensive 

 covers. 



The roe have a singular habit of chasing each other in 



