LOCH LAYGHAL. 175 



"Monday Evening. 



" We have just returned from the top of Loch Loyal, 

 after nine hours pretty hard walking. The toil, as Selby's 

 butler remarked, was ' amply repaid ' by the view. The 

 said butler is a fine, fat, good-humoured Englishman, 

 with a great turn for geography and natural history. He 



and T are great friends. The post has come in since 



we returned from our walk ; and I am very thankful for 



dear H 's letter, though it is but of a mingled yarn. 



I fear you have been far from well ; but I hope and pray 

 that ere now the enemy is gone, and that this letter will 

 at last find you at the Hill. Give my most affectionate 

 regards to all/' 



" Tongue, 11 th June 1834. 

 " We have been very comfortably quartered here since 

 Saturday afternoon, and have done a good deal of busi- 

 ness. Yesterday, besides killing ten or twelve dozen of 

 fine lake trout, we captured two specimens of Scdmo ferox, 

 or great loch trout of the Highlands. They were young- 

 ones ; but each weighed between five and six pounds. 

 They had never been killed with the rod in this part of 

 the country before, although their existence was well 

 known, as they are seen at the mouths of the burns about 

 spawning time, and are said to attain to the weight of 

 eighteen or twenty pounds. 



