EEMINISCENCES OF THE LEWS. 117 



go over this ground too much, perhaps ; but 

 my wish is not to dehide those who may adopt 

 my plans into the false idea that all is done 

 when a loch is banked up and a sluice put in. 

 No so ; you cannot counteract the effects of a 

 decidedly dry season in very, very small rivers. 

 I will add one last word of warning. If you have 

 a good supply of water, never exhaust it, or 

 fancy that, because you have brought the fish 

 into the river, all is done. No such thing. 

 Keep a litle water for them — as much as you 

 can. Poor things ! they get thirsty ; and bear 

 this in mind, that there is nothing like a little 

 fresh water to make fish lively, which means 

 rising. I have generally found that the fish of 

 the far west of Scotland and Ireland are as 

 fond of refreshment as the natives. 



I have already mentioned Loch Trialaval as 

 a great resort of those pests, the gulls ; but it 

 also contained other denizens of a much more 

 agreeable nature. The wild geese, who bred in 

 some of the adjoining lochs. Loch Patagore, for 

 instance — though, strange to say, they never 

 did in Trialaval — brought their young there in 

 the early part of the season, for reasons best 

 known to themselves : I suppose to teach them 

 the ways of the world. But, unfortunately, 

 they learnt them too soon after my arrival at 



