IN ASSYNT. 147 



A curious feature of Assynt is the Loch Muloch corrie, or 

 Gillaroo Loch, as it is sometimes called, from being tenanted 

 by the variety of trout called gillaroo. The peculiarity of this 

 fish consists in a thickening of the gizzard, apparent on dis- 

 section, and which is said to arise from its feeding largely on 

 pond snails. To an ordinary eye the fish do not differ from the 

 common trout of the country, but a gillie or experienced fisher- 

 man will at once detect the gillaroo. This loch lies high up on 

 the limestone hills over Inchnadamph, and if a guide be not 

 taken, can only be found by a compass. The best way is to 

 ascend from the road by Loch Assynt up the course of the 

 Trailigill burn, and when some two miles have been conquered, 

 then to strike over the swelling wastes of heather to the right. 

 The burn itself is a typical mountain stream, now leaping down 

 a dark, narrow chasm into a deep pool edged with stunted 

 elders, now spreading out over boulders and gravel, now 

 brawling over rock-shelves with brilliant golden blossoms at the 

 side and little trout glancing over the shallows, but never for- 

 getting its mission to gain the lower ground and carry down to 

 Loch Assynt the drainage of the hills. The heather slopes 

 above are indented with singular cup-like hollows, supposed by 

 some to be the site of a camp or a village, but we think that 

 a dispassionate examination will show them to be natural fea- 

 tures. Every here and there a lonely shealing, or a shepherd's 

 hut, is passed. A few hens stride over the " midden " in front, 

 where pestilential odours poison the sweet mountain air ; some 

 cabbages in a plot, overrun with weeds and fenced in rudely 

 with stones and hurdles, are growing on one side. On the 

 other is a decrepit peat-shed. The cottage itself is low, of 

 rough stone, roofed with peat and heather, fastened down with 

 straw bands, and there are sure to be two or three bare-legged 

 lads and lassies in front playing with a kitten. As for sanitary 

 arrangements, there are none, but the fresh air and pure water 

 around forbid disease. At a little distance nothing more pic- 



