116 EEMINISCENCES OF THE LEWS. 



the water gets low — witness the Wye and the 

 Usk in 1870 ; and, if dry weather can affect 

 such rivers as these, what must be the effect in 

 the smaller streams ? The fishing generally of 

 the western and south-western coasts of Ire- 

 land, and those of the north-western coasts of 

 Scotland and the Hebrides, resemble each other 

 much in character, and are equally subject to 

 over-droughts and over-floods, — at one time 

 unfishable torrents, at another masses of stones 

 with a little water. It is to remedy this evil 

 that, if sluices are established, they should be 

 watched with the greatest care as to the proper 

 putting in and taking out ; and this is no easy 

 matter, for, if let alone, your true Hebridean, 

 like your true Irishman, smokes his pipe over 

 his peat fire, talks, and relates wondrous tales, 

 but somehow always misses the proper time for 

 attending to his work. Unless you watch him 

 like a rat, your sluices are at sea when they 

 should be snug in a corner out of the rush of 

 the flood, or they are in when some little drop 

 of water should be allowed to dribble out to 

 keep the stones cool. By constant attention, 

 however, we got to know of every available 

 water we could shut up, and contrived little 

 minor floods to get the fish a certain distance 

 up the river Laxay as far as Loch Valtos. I 



