SMALL HIGHLAND STREAMS 



107 



having gone out alone and never returned alive. The 

 rise and fall of the stream is often extraordinarily 

 rapid, and the force of the rushing water very great ; 

 but the hills are now so thoroughly drained that few 

 rivers, except those which have a large lake near their 

 source, remain in fishing order for more than a very 

 short time. It is curious how seldom salmon take a 

 fly when such a river is only at its ordinary or normal 

 height, and there has been no recent flood. The 

 pools may be full of fish, and the stream may in many 

 places look just the right depth and strength, but 

 experience teaches one that there is hardly any chance 

 of a taking rise. It would seem that the psychological 

 moment is either when a fish has just shifted his 

 ground and taken up new quarters, or when he is just 

 about to do so. When actually running, salmon never 

 take, and when quite settled in a pool, they become 

 dour and sulky. It is for this reason that I like to 

 have some pools occasionally touched by the tide. 

 The fish in such places are kept moving, and there is 

 always a chance. 



It would be foreign to my subject to describe the 

 great floods which have from time to time devastated 

 the Highland straths, although probably the most 

 singular capture of a fish recorded in all salmon lore 

 is that narrated by Sir Thomas Dick Lauder in his 



