172 MOST INTERESTING FACTS. 



selves first received life. This opinion I am able 

 to illustrate by, what appears to me, exceedingl}- 

 interesting and conclusive facts. 



Loch Shin, a piece of water, about twenty-one 

 miles by fourteen, situate in the heart of the 

 Sutherland mountains, is the immediate feeder of 

 the river Shin, noted for its salmon fecundity. 

 The Loch itself has four feeders, middling sized 

 rivers, viz. the Terry, Fiack, Garvie, and Curry, 

 in which, previously to the year 1836, not a salmon 

 was ever seen, though many were in the habit of 

 entering the loch or lake.* In the year men- 

 tioned, at the request of his Grace of Sutherland, 

 and Mr. Loch, M.P., salmon were caught in the 



* The following is interesting to the numerous fraternity 

 of salmon-fishers. Although salmon were frequently seen 

 going into Loch Shin in great numbers and leaping in 

 its waters, not one had been caught either by fly-fishing or 

 trolling in the Loch until last year (1849). His Grace, the 

 Duke of Argyle, trolling in the Loch last season for the 

 salmo ferox^ hooked and killed a salmon, and therefore was 

 the first to break the charm that had from time immemorial 

 protected the salmo-salar sojourners in this large lake. It 

 may be reasonably inferred from the above fact that as 

 spawning salmon increase in the four rivers that feed the 

 Loch, salmon and salmon -angling will increase in it also, 

 so that hereafter it may become as famous for salmon-fish- 

 ing with rod and line as it is now for angling for the salmo 

 ferox^ and various sorts of salmonidffi. 



