382 THE SALMON RIVERS OF SCOTLAND 



pool below it, and for the rest a little judicious croy-making 

 would, I believe, work wonders. It is, I admit, more or less 

 unseemly, almost impertinent, to write thus all unasked about 

 another man's river, but I plead as my excuse that I have a 

 sentimental interest in the Echaig. In it as a small boy I 

 caught my first grilse I can recollect yet how my knees 

 knocked together when the awful fear that the fish might get 

 off presented itself. In the Little Echaig, which joins below 

 the Cott House Bridge, I learned to swim. Up the Masson, 

 the largest tributary, which joins below Benmore House, I 

 received a wholesome lesson to overhaul my outfit before 

 starting for a day's fishing. I had trudged up to the falls, full 

 of youthful ardour. The sea-trout were rising freely ; I put 

 up my rod with speed all eager for the fray, when lo ! I had 

 left my reel behind. I had to walk to Kilmun Cottage to get 

 it, and, of course, when I got back after about an hour and a 

 half's hard going, the fish were not rising freely at all. Since 

 that day I think I have never failed to repeat to myself, if 

 starting out alone : 



"Rod, reel, basket, 

 Hooks, worms, flasket." 



One has only to make a mental reservation about the worms 

 as a rule. 



I recollect seeing some blasting operations carried out 

 opposite the deer park in those early days. The late Mr. 

 Duncan was then proprietor. The object was to deepen the 

 water. A different method has since been adopted, viz. by 

 building a low weir, and I understand the latter method has 

 been attended with considerable success. 



The Echaig is, however, much more of a sea-trout than a 

 salmon river, although when a club of six rods used to fish the 

 water, and there was no netting, very good catches of salmon 

 were made. Nowadays the pool above and the pool below the 

 Cott House Bridge, not far from the mouth of the river, are 

 netted, intermittently, I believe, about three days a week. 

 In the three first years of the late proprietor's tune the 

 netting was let to a tacksman in Dunoon, and in this period, 

 I have been informed, he secured 33,000 sea-trout. Of course, 

 the river was then netted as hard as men could do it who had 

 the one object of making money out of it. Nowadays the 



