260 LOCH CRERAN. 



termediate rivers proceed onwards to their destination. 

 It is sufficiently remarkable how well they manage to 

 discover their home rivers without supposing them never 

 to make blunders. Indeed, how the fish for the River 

 Creran succeed in the difficult task of slipping past 

 Eriska Island is an interesting question, and yet we are 

 assured by those who know both fish thoroughly that 

 River Awe fish find their way into Loch Creran 

 occasionally along with the native fish. We say into 

 Loch Creran, where they have been captured, showing 

 that they have been travelling with the same body of fish 

 as the Creran salmon, and missed the mouth of the loch. 

 But we understand they are never taken in the River 

 Creran, so that they must discover their error and return 

 to seek their own river ! 



This seems to us an interesting fact, if it is as reliable 

 as we believe it to be ; going far to prove that this 

 instinct of returning to the native river is largely founded 

 on observation, capable of rectifying blunders when 

 made. Again, the fish of the River Nant, adjoining the 

 Awe, will enter the mouth of the latter river during low 

 water, and await a spate in their own stream just as a 

 woman would go into her neighbour's lobby and await 

 the return of her absent damsel to open her own door, 

 declining absolutely, however, to go "ben the hoose." 

 Is this not a comparatively sensible movement ? 



JANUARY, 1883. 



We brought in the New- Year, as well as Christmas, by 

 a forenoon's dredging, and, strange to say, the weather 

 was most propitious, and enabled us fully to enjoy the 

 beauty of mountain and loch, the first just sprinkled with 



