SCOTLAND 147 



far from Cape Wrath, skirts the shore of Sutherland, 

 Ross-shire, and Inverness for more than a hundred 

 miles at distances varying from five to twenty miles 

 from the western sea. In winter and spring these 

 mountains are snow-clad, and every partial melting 

 of their snow brings down torrents of ice-cold water, 

 which rush through the short channels of these 

 rivers into the sea. But x the water of that sea, 

 unlike that of the German Ocean, that washes our 

 eastern shores, is warmed by the soft influence of the 

 Gulf Stream, and the salmon consequently prefer to 

 remain in it until the snow water has run off, and the 

 milder weather of June and July has raised the 

 temperature of the river waters, and then they begin 

 to ascend. 1 ' All this is to say that early in the 

 year salmon run into water that is comparatively 

 warm. It seems clear, then, that again and 

 again, when the weather is propitious, which is not 

 to be expected often, the salmon will go into Loch 

 Tay as plentifully as they ever went, and that thirty- 

 one fish in a week to the rod of Colonel Murray 

 of Polmaise may yet cease to be a " record.*" 



This account of Loch Tay was written at the 

 close of 1905. Now, when reading the proof-sheets, 

 on March 5, 1906, I am able to state that the 

 theory which it presents has had very remarkable 

 justification. During December and January the 

 weather was exceptionally mild. The temperature 

 of Loch Tay was higher than that of the tributaries 

 of the Tay below the loch. The spring salmon, 

 therefore, ran into the loch, instead of running into 



