LOCH C RE RAN. 



neighbouring waters, as we scarcely ever find these birds 

 without such food at this season in Loch Linnhe. 

 Herring have been taken in the above loch of late, but 

 in no great numbers, while mackerel in shoals have also 

 been visiting their occasional haunts in Ardmucknish Bay. 

 These latter fish are small but are still large enough to 

 prove a great boon to the locality. Sea trout are still 

 appearing in Oban in considerable quantities, the result 

 of the poaching raids of the Oban trawlers ; but the fish 

 are not nearly so large as they were early in the season, 

 and are no doubt local products from the various smaller 

 streams. 



As the rowers toiled against the stream, that curiously 

 interesting phenomenon, the combinations of the dockers 

 andthe gulls voluntary or accidental to make an assault 

 upon a shoal of fish, again came under our notice the 

 dockers below keeping the fish towards the surface, and 

 together, while the gulls and terns had a chance at them 

 above. On these occasions the frightened fish crowd to- 

 gether like sheep, so that the whole tragedy is confined 

 within very narrow limits. Doubtless the dookers merely 

 look to their own convenience, keeping the fish from 

 sinking too deep for them, and the screaming, gobbling 

 sea fowl are accidental jackals. 



At the islands we hear a sudden reverberation, and 

 shortly thereafter we are surprised to find it was a shot 

 from one of the party, the nature of the sound and the 

 real distance wholly concealed by the peculiar state of 

 the atmosphere, which must have now all the character 

 of a light fog from the quantity of moisture in suspension, 

 although the day was otherwise clear, warm, and fine. 

 Long before darkness, however, a heavy rainfall of long- 

 continued duration partly explained the atmospheric 



