100 EEMINISCENCES OF THE LEWS. 



watched the turn of tide well, and caught the 

 pools as the fish were coining in, and before the 

 tide had made too much, you might get a good 

 many sea- trout. I once got eighty- seven, but 

 they were small. From this description it will 

 be seen that the Blackwater was a very nice 

 little river. It was no fine Highland or Irish 

 stream, but it had plenty of fish ; and it had 

 one thing about it I never saw equalled — it was 

 the best rising river I ever threw line on. If 

 you treated it properly, and there was wind, 

 you would always kill fish, for there was a good 

 deal of deep water and pools ; and when the 

 streams and pools would not fish for want of 

 water, the still, deep water always would when 

 there was wind — and it is not often the Lews 

 is without that. Many a happy hour have I 

 passed on its banks, and many a fish have I laid 

 on them ; and, to my mind, they took the charm 

 of the Soval ground from it when they deprived 

 it of the Blackwater, and the sooner they unite 

 the two again the better. I and my comrade, 

 T. D., had probably better sport there when we 

 fished than any others are likely to have again. 

 I do not say this as boasting of our prowess, 

 for we were no better than our neighbours — 

 certainly I was not. But I loved the dear 

 stream so well that I always treated her as I 



