THE GRIMERSTA 311 



area ultimately seems to give rise to the prevailing red colour 

 seen in the worst specimens. On lifting the specimen killed 

 on 24th July from the box in which the fish came the lens 

 dropped out from one of the eyes. The specimen was certainly 

 not very fresh, having been sent during the hottest of the 

 summer, and having taken three days to reach Edinburgh 

 from Grimersta Lodge. Still this could not, I consider, account 

 for the ease with which the lens of the eye dropped out. In no 

 specimen which I have seen or of which I have heard has the fish 

 been affected except in the region of the brain and medulla. 



GRIMERSTA 



This, the best fishing in the Lews, and for its size one of the 

 most productive fishings in Britain, consists of a chain of four 

 lochs and a short little river, to the sea at the head of Loch 

 Roag, on the west side of the Long Island, about 15 miles 

 across from Stornoway. The great benefit of the lochs to this 

 fishing is that of water supply. It is fed primarily from the 

 largest fresh-water loch in the Outer Isles, Loch Langabhat, 

 or the long water, a name which, like very many of the place- 

 names in those parts, has a marked Scandinavian tincture, 

 reminiscent of the days of the Vikings. 



Where catchment basins are so small as on those islands, the 

 presence of lochs are more or less indispensable, for although 

 the rainfall is very considerable, the streams are of necessity 

 very small, and a short spell of dry weather results in marked 

 shrinkage. It is a wonderful sight, in bright hot weather, to 

 see the salmon jumping in the bay at the mouth of the 

 Grimersta. At times when the fish have congregated in great 

 numbers, being unable to ascend the little river to the first 

 loch, they leap with surprising frequency. Almost every 

 second a bar of glittering silver seems to flash out in the sun, 

 and one may sometimes see quite a number in the air at once. 

 People have told me they have been unable to sleep at night 

 owing to the splashing. 



The fishing is almost entirely from boats in the four lochs. 

 The Grimersta river proper is only a mile long, and is not of 

 much account for fishing, since fish, when they can run, gener- 

 ally run through into the first loch at once. It is, therefore, 



