234 A YEAR OF SPORT AND NATURAL HISTORY. 



clean fish being a great rarity and the water full of kelts. It was 

 a singular, and not very pleasant, sight to see bodies of the spent fish 

 lying in hundreds among the ice- blocks and snow on the banks, 

 left there by the rapid subsidences of the river. Great salmon, 20, 

 30 and 40 Ibs. weight, were there lying dead, the crows and other 

 birds feeding upon their decomposing bodies. Though the 

 salmon might fail us, however, the laird's pheasant-shooting was 

 excellent ; the birds, strong on the wing and full-grown, rendered 

 straight holding and choke-bores absolute necessities ; a fair 

 number of woodcock was always a certainty, while the way the 

 bunnies lay out was astonishing. 



I can only recall one day on which our sport was absolutely 

 stopped through stress of weather, and it was not until some days 

 afterwards that we ascertained we had attempted shooting in what 

 proved to be a quite historical gale. By n a.m. the wind had 

 increased to hurricane force, and, driven before it, blinding clouds 

 of snow continued to descend without intermission. The beaters 

 had entered one fine piece of covert before things had reached 

 this climax, but the drive was a complete failure ; most of the birds 

 simply could not get up, and those that did manage to rise a 

 yard or two from the ground were whisked away in an instant 

 by the tremendous gale. We were truly thankful to make our 

 way home to the shelter of the old mansion house, from whose 

 windows we were enabled to gaze with equanimity upon the 

 snow, as it wildly eddied and whirled before the storm. 



