I A Gossip on a Sutherland Hill-side 277 



Of course, the increase of fishermen has had a vast 

 influence on the sport ; the very best loch in Suther- 

 land has been entirely destroyed, as far as fishing is 

 concerned, from its having had the misfortune of 

 having a name, and being within reach of an inn. 

 Those who go to Loch Beannach, on the strength 

 of tradition, will find themselves wofully disap- 

 pointed. In old times it was a famous loch for 

 trout ; they reeled out like salmon, and were the very 

 Apollos of their race. The bottom of the loch is 

 principally composed of clean primary gravel, and, 

 from some cause or other, the PJiryganea which were 

 bred in it were twice the size of those which gener- 

 ally flutter over Highland waters. Another cause of 

 the excellence of its fish I discovered while examin- 

 ing one of them for entomological purposes, and 

 that is the existence of quantities of ' sticklebacks.' 

 I cannot say that the prickly one does not exist in 

 other lochs lying as high as Loch Beannach, but I 

 never saw a trace of him ; and it may be worth the 

 while of some Lairg-visiting naturalist to examine 

 whether this subalpine form of the Sticklebagulus 

 choak-perchius of our southern streams may or may 

 not deserve to be elevated into a new species, to be 

 called Sticklebagulus BeannacJiius. 



One cause of the diminution of sport in the 

 Sutherland lochs belongs to bygone times, and is 

 worth mentioning for the sake of the tradition. The 

 old people tell me that in the days of black cattle, 

 they (the cattle) were driven up to the hill in summer, 



