266 TOUR IN SUTHERL AN DSHIRE. 



they become tame, or else take to the woods and are killed, 

 their instinctive knowledge of danger having apparently 

 deserted them. 



SCOTCH STREAMS AND LAKES. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 



Rivers, Streams and Lakes in Scotland The Tweed The Lakes and Streams 

 of Argyleshire Loch Awe A contest with a Salmo ferox Inverness- 

 shire, Ross-shire, and Sutherland Pike not an injurious destroyer of 

 Trout Char The River Shin Pertinacity of Salmon in asce'nding 

 Streams The Beauly The Findhorn The Spoy The Dee Decrease 

 in the number of Salmon ; its causes and its cure Extent of the trade of 

 Fly-making. 



MANY and varied are the streams and lakes of Scotland, and 

 scarcely any two of them contain trout of exactly similar 

 appearance. Although of the same species, and alike in all 

 the essential parts of anatomy, &c., in outward appearance, 

 shape, and colour, trout vary more that any other fish. As 1 

 have before observed, these fish have the power of either 

 voluntarily or involuntarily taking, to a remarkable degree, 

 the colour of the water in which they live. In the same way 

 do they derive their brown and yellow hue from the stones 

 on which they are accustomed to lie. Few Highland streams 

 contain very large trout : the feeding is not abundant enough, 

 the cold waters not being sufficiently productive of animal- 

 cula and small insects. Pish are as dependent on the 

 nature of the soil through which a stream runs, as oxen are 

 on the richness of the meadows on which they pasture. The 

 reason is obvious : a river which runs through a fertile 

 country always abounds in flies, worms, snails, &c., on which 

 its inhabitants feed; while a mountain stream, which flows 

 rapidly through a barren and rocky country, has not the 

 same supply. 



I will not pretend to give a descriptive list of all the rivers, 

 streams, and lakes of Scotland, where the angler may find 

 employment for rod and line : they are too numerous for me 

 to do so ; nor is my knowledge of them sufficiently complete. 



There are few districts, from Ayrshire to Caithness, where 

 trout and salmon are not to be found in tolerable abundance. 



