82 LOCH CRERAN. 



took place to the limited bay from all quarters, where 

 they ranged themselves during daylight, thus effectually 

 scaring the fish from the confined quarters, where 

 judicious management might have kept them until the 

 bulk were secured. The want of public spirit and co- 

 operation of classes is ever a serious detriment to success 

 in the Highlands, where, in the fisheries especially, there 

 is utter want of foresight or regard for to-morrow. This 

 is to be found even in long-established stations, and is 

 not confined to the comparatively unskilled and ignorant 

 landsmen, who alone prosecute our shore fisheries in the 

 West. Still our people have participated somewhat in 

 the good gift of the sea, and the few days the herring 

 were hurrying shoreward will have helped to enrich a 

 good many breakfasts among us : we should like to know 

 that many more had been prepared to profit by such a 

 rare opportunity. One night's fishing repaid the whole 

 cost of a new net and left something over, and this ought 

 to stimulate others to invest in a like venture. We are 

 perhaps indebted to the severe gales, still howling around 

 our neighbourhood, for these herring shoals, driven in- 

 ward from their usual haunts around the shores of Mull. 



The rooks have a busy time of it just now, as they make 

 use of their nests throughout the year, and these have 

 been so severely handled in the already severe " winter " 

 that the poor birds were actively engaged repairing, these 

 latter days, whenever the gales allowed them to carry 

 their burdens. This has not been often, however, and 

 some pairs we observed very disconsolate over their nests, 

 whose fragments were being swirled over the sward 

 below the trees. The poor birds will no doubt have to 

 roost in the open until gentler breezes blow. 



They were digging potatoes near Achnacloich, close to 



