CHAPTER VI. 



Lochs on West Coast of Scotland Animal life Shell-fish 

 Fish Plague of Dog-fish Lobsters Salmon and Sea- 

 trout A singular trio Salmon detained in Salt-water 

 become diseased Artificial " Spate" for Salmon Salmon 

 passively following the line when hooked. 



way in which some of the Sea-lochs on 

 the West coast of Scotland teem with animal 

 life is truly marvellous. The shores are in many 

 places literally covered with Shell-fish, which are 

 exposed at low-water, while the lochs seem to 

 abound with fish almost to an equal extent. The 

 Shell-fish mostly consist of mussels, cockles, win- 

 kles and oysters, and, when I say that the shores 

 are in parts covered with them, I am not in the 

 least exaggerating the actual fact. I well remem- 

 ber, when I first made acquaintance with that part 

 of the country, my surprise at being shewn in Loch 

 Creran a dark-blue bank, forming at low water a 

 peninsula perhaps a hundred yards long by some 

 fifty wide, and being told that the colour of 

 this proceeded from mussels. I half thought my 



