110 EEMINISCENCES OF THE LEWS. 



been well cruived. Fortunately, I caught them 

 at their foul fishing, cut their net to pieces, 

 and watched them so close, that they made a 

 sort of compromise, and I got rid of the nets 

 for a coTisideration, as the Highlanders pro- 

 nounce the word. The river, however, was so 

 shallow, that, though I caught a great many 

 sea-trout, I got very few fish. At last, seeing 

 the success of the patent floods at the Black- 

 water, I tried them on the Laxay, and, to a 

 certain extent, succeeded very well, for I 

 caught one day more fish in the Rock and 

 Eeedy pools — the two good pools between 

 Trialaval and Valtos — than I had ever caught in 

 the whole river all the previous years of my 

 tenancy. But it was up-hill work making 

 sluices there. I tried in three or four dif- 

 ferent places, but not very successfully; for, 

 though the river was very shallow. Loch Tria- 

 laval was a large body of water, and two or 

 three times my sluice and embankment dis- 

 appeared, and it required both care and expense 

 to make them stand, and sometimes there were 

 great floodings and overflows. Once I nearly 

 drowned half the township of Laxay when out 

 at their shealings; but they were quiet folk, 

 and we were good friends, and I made them 

 fords and put out stepping-stones, and, for- 



