EEMINISCENCES OF THE LEWS. 17 



hour I have passed with Burnaby in that small 

 parlour. It was a delightful fishing station. 

 The Grimesta lochs and river were about two 

 miles off, to the mouth of which you rowed up 

 Loch Eoag ; the Blackwater river about the 

 same distance. 



The Grimesta, with its different lochs, take it 

 all in all, is the best fishing in the Lews for 

 sea-trout ; and the different salmon-casts in the 

 lochs, where the stream runs from one to an- 

 other, are very good. The river itself, between 

 the first loch and the sea, I never thought 

 much of; for, though you may, and do, catch 

 fish in it (by fish I mean salmon), yet, as a 

 rule, fish do not rest in these short, rapid rivers. 

 Indeed, except in very full water, there is not 

 depth enough for them to lodge ; and, generally 

 speaking, fish do not take while running — at 

 least, I never found them do so. I attribute 

 the superiority of the salmon-casts in the 

 Grimesta lochs to those of any of the other 

 lochs in the Lews, to their being supplied with a 

 very large body of water, as they form the out- 

 let of the extensive and fine Loch Langavat, 

 that receives all the waters of that side of 

 Harris that run into Glen Langan ; and the 

 Grimesta has this advantage, that there is 

 spring fishing in it, provided the weather is not 



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