PrSCATOR AND VENATOR 183 



or there is a good curl on the water just where the 

 hreexe catches it, and I try my luck without success ; 

 hut I am quite at peace with mankind when I return 

 in the evening, and I have acquired a stock of know- 

 ledge which I hope will serve me in good stead on 

 some future and more auspicious occasion. Those 

 who fish a West Highland river, with crumbling 

 and undermined banks, cannot rely upon tradition to 

 tell them where to cast their fly ; the fickle stream 

 thinks nothing of filling a ten-foot hole with gravel, 

 or bringing a few tons of peaty bank down with a 

 splash to turn the current and make new resting-places 

 for the salmon at the bottom of the water. 



I have purposely abstained from any allusion to 

 scenery or natural history in my brief sketch of two 

 blank days, because I desired to combat the sugges- 

 tion that even the most unsuccessful salmon-fishing at 

 all resembled dumb-bell exercise ; but the true fisher- 

 man finds many delights in his occupation apart from 

 the mere capture of fish. Like the deer-stalker, he 

 takes his exercise 'in the purest of atmospheres, among 

 the grandest scenery in Britain.' 



Not very long ago it was my privilege to be a 

 fellow guest with Lochiel himself, in perhaps the most 

 beautiful place in all Scotland, where both pursuits 

 can be carried out in perfection Braemore, the 



