314 THE SALMON RIVERS OF SCOTLAND 



that it would take an hour for the water to reach the sea from the 

 lake. On August 22 the high tide was about 4.30, so the dam was 

 cut after lunch, and, as a fact, did not take much cutting, as in a few 

 more hours it must have given way. 



" As I had described, at the mouth of the river was the large sea 

 basin, at high tide crammed with fish pressing up as near as they 

 could to where the little trickle of fresh water was still running. As 

 the fresh water from the loch came rushing down the excitement 

 began. First a small shoal of salmon tried the passage, then more 

 came rushing in. So madly did they swarm in that they pressed 

 each other to the sides, and many ran right ashore or scrambled up 

 in water not deep enough to cover them. Had we wished, nothing 

 could have been easier than to have scooped them out in landing nets 

 by the score 



" We sat watching this wonderful sight till it grew dusk, and had 

 long given up counting or trying to estimate the numbers of fish run- 

 ning in. They must, without exaggeration, have run in by thousands 

 in the forty-eight hours that our spate lasted. The next morning, 

 I well remember, was clear and bright, and, walking up the river, 

 the pools seemed literally paved with fish, even in all sorts of unlikely 

 and unaccustomed places. A day or two before I had tried for some 

 fish in the sea, and, as usual, they would not play the game, so the 

 snatch hook was put on. I hooked a big fish, much marked with 

 disease on the head, but, after playing, I lost him in the seaweed, a 

 not unusual occurrence in the sea. The cast broke about a foot from 

 the large Golden Eagle I had on. On the morning after the dam 

 cutting I saw my fish amongst some others on a shallow. So also 

 did my sharp-eyed gillie, little Jhonit, who was much excited at the 

 chance of recovering the ' Wooley Dog,' as he used to call the Eagle 

 fly. In he rushed, jumping like a monkey across the stones. He got 

 right up to the fish, made a grab at it, and got hold of it for a moment ; 

 but lost his footing, went head over heels into the water, and away 

 rushed the never-to-be-forgotten, ever -to -be -remembered Eaglebear- 

 ing fish. For the first few days after the fish had gotten into the 

 first loch they had not settled down, and we did not have more than 

 average sport. Two rods were fishing on the loch and river, and got 

 17 and 12 on Wednesday ; Thursday, 31 and 18 ; Friday, 2 and 6 ; 

 Saturday, 16 and 23. But the big week was to come. Unfortunately, 

 as I before said, two rods left on Saturday, the 25th, leaving only three 

 for the finish of the month. 



"I have often been asked how it was that one loch produced all 

 the fish, a quite unusual state of things, as in a normal year No. 1 was 

 by no means the best beat. Our flood was made by damming up one 

 lake ; so unlike a natural flood which would have taken the fish up 

 to the head water had they cared to travel so far ; our spate rushed 

 them all into No. 1 loch, and there left them, for it was only at quite 

 the early stage, when the level of the lake was still high, that they could 

 run into No. 2 loch. As a fact, we did catch some in that loch in the 



