EEMINISCENCES OF THE LEWS. 21 



harder fights with a good 14 lb. fish in the 

 upper lake - of Killarney than ever I had with 

 a river fish; but, then, those said Killarney 

 gentlemen were the gamest fish I ever had to 

 do with. Surely, however, this will be con- 

 ceded, that it is wilder sport fishing a loch than 

 a river in a boat, and there are many rivers 

 that in places can only be fished from a boat. 

 All this, however, is matter of opinion. In my 

 experience of Lews fishing, fish fight much 

 harder in the lochs than in the rivers ; and for 

 a very simple reason — the rivers are so small 

 and narrow that fish have no room to rush and 

 run about. In the lochs they have ; in neither, 

 however, are they very combative. As a rule, 

 too, the fish do not run large, or, rather, did 

 not run large ; though of late years, owing to 

 my plan of introducing artificial floods, they have 

 much increased in size. Also, wherever rivers 

 run much through peat moss — and in the Lews 

 they run through nothing else — I have invari- 

 ably remarked that fish, after they have been a 

 few days in the fresh water, get dull, and have 

 no fight in them. 



But to return from this long digression. We 

 remained about a month at Callernish, where 

 we disported ourselves indifferently well, and 

 then left it. Poor dear old dirty place ! As a 



