THE BEAULY DISTRICT 197 



force of water hopelessly great, I have seen plucky fish leaping 

 boldly as far into the pass as they could get. By judicious 

 blasting, a natural pass of a comparatively easy gradient could 

 be created round the fall at the left side. 



The action of the water plunging over the fall seems to have 

 gouged out a channel of great depth, rather than to have eroded 

 the upper walls of the gorge. The result is that a short distance 

 below the fall the rocks on either side of the river approach as 

 near as about 7 or 8 feet, the whole volume of the Beauly, 

 which shortly before was contained in perhaps 150 feet of 

 channel, being carried in an infinitely black and deep-looking 

 cavern below. 



In times of flood these subterranean channels are unable to 

 take more water, and, the upper rocks being so narrow, the 

 water is pent up so that the level rises at an exceptional rate. 

 About 50 feet of a rise has, I understand, been noticed here in 

 high flood, and the late Major Hugh Eraser told me he had 

 seen a fall 10 feet high pouring down through the narrow rocky 

 aperture into the Mare's Pool below. The Mare's Pool is the 

 highest of the Beaufort Castle water, and usually holds a lot 

 of fish. A long flight of steps lead down to it from the top of 

 the cliff, and the lower portion is fished from a platform which 

 projects across a side gully. It gets its name, Eraser the 

 ghillie tells me, from the fact that a horse fair used to be held in 

 the field at the top of the cliff on the Kilmorack Church side, 

 and that on one occasion a mare fell over into the pool 

 below. 



The tail of the Mare's Pool is no distance from the foot of 

 the gorge, where a fine stream which cannot be reached from 

 either side spreads out above the Lower Kilmorack Falls. 

 The barrier of rock here is divided by many streams, and a 

 boat is necessary to cross from one part to another, and to land 

 upon an island from which two streams can be fished. From 

 the remains of old but substantial posts which are noticeable 

 at the sills of several of the runs, it appears that these falls 

 were at one time used as a natural cruive dyke. Two passes 

 exist, one in the rock of the central stream, where the fall has a 

 good slope, though the actual height must be 6 or 7 feet, the 

 other at the back of the island in the form of a wooden shoot as 

 at the upper fall. I understand that the majority of fish go 



