104 EEMINISCENCES OF THE LEWS. 



don't care for killing a fish — I mean a salmon 

 — with aught but a fly. 



Such is the Black water in its state of nature, 

 which it was not when first I went to Soval, 

 or rather the year after. The bag-nets — those 

 charming engines, invented, I believe, for the 

 destruction of rivers — had been taken off, only 

 to be replaced after the angling was let, and 

 in the very spot where they should not have 

 been. I thought, by my lease, to have guarded 

 against their being so placed ; but a Scotch 

 lease is a queer instrument, even of law, and 

 the Ordnance map, which one would have sup- 

 posed to have been conclusive evidence of 

 locality, was not so considered. So there they 

 .were, and I had nothing to do but grin and 

 bear it. Now, at even the mouths of great 

 salmon rivers, bag-nets are bad enough, but 

 when the rivers are not large, and very shallow, 

 if the season is dry the fish cannot get up. 

 They try, poor things, but in vain, and have 

 nothing to do but with each retiring tide to 

 drop back into the jaws of the ever-open bag- 

 net. I had to go through this pleasant pass, 

 till really the fishing got so worthless that I 

 had serious thoughts of letting Clarke, the 

 then lessee of the Gremsta angling, have it ; 

 for the fish could not get up, generally speak- 



