WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS 



during the night to the shoutof the man stationed to watch, 

 when he sees fish, and the sound of the oars and boat im- 

 mediately afterwards, though the object of pursuit is but a 

 fish after all. Sometimes a silent otter suddenly shows 

 himself on the ford, having slipped quietly and unobserved 

 through the deeper parts of the stream till he is obliged -to 

 wade, not having water enough to cover him. His appear- 

 ance is the signal of a general outcry, and if he returns to 

 the deep water where the net is, the fishermen occasion- 

 ally manage to entangle him, and dragging him to shore, 

 soon dispatch him. He isoneof their worst enemies. More 

 often, however, he slips noiselessly to the side of the river, 

 and half ensconced behind some broken bank, remains 

 quiet and concealed till the danger is past, and then glides 

 away unperceived. There is no animal more difficult to get 

 the advantage of than the otter, as long as he is on ground 

 that he knows. The fish which escape the nets, and those 

 which go up during floods and on Sundays, on which day 

 they are allowed to have a free passage, seldom stop until 

 they get to the deep quiet pools amongst the rocks some 

 four or five miles up the water, where they rest till fresh 

 water and opportunity enable them to continue their up- 

 ward progress. Neither sea-trout nor salmon ever seem 

 happy excepting when making their way up a stream. It 

 is wonderful, too, against what difficulties, in the shape of 

 falls and rapids, they will ascend a river. In the Findhorn, 

 owing to the impetuosity of the stream, the frequent and 

 sudden floods it is subject to, and the immense quantity of 

 shingle and gravel, which is always shifting its place, and 

 changing the course of the lower part of the water, there 



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