CH. IV. CURLEWS AND GOLDEN PLOVERS. 57 



the inclinations of the fish might be turned at the 

 moment. One day we saw him in his usual posi- 

 tion at the head of a rocky pool, and found that 

 he had risen a salmon. After tempting the fish 

 with every fly contained in an old bible, which 

 served as a fishing-book, without success, he told 

 us, as we greeted him in passing, that he would 

 have the fish before dark : and sure enough, late 

 in the evening, while taking a stroll up the river, 

 we met the old gentleman coming home, and after 

 a little coquetry on the subject, he produced the 

 salmon, wrapped up in a snuffy pocket handker- 

 chief and crammed into his trousers, where he 

 carried it in order to avoid notoriety on the subject. 

 Not having permission, I fancy, to kill salmon in 

 the river, he had killed the fish with a worm late 

 in the evening, after everything else had failed. 



The first few miles of the drive from Lairg to 

 Aultnaharrow we skirt the edge of Loch Shin, 

 passing through a beautiful wood of birch, at this 

 season (June) full of singing-birds, wood-pigeons, 

 etc. Beyond this we pass for many miles through 

 a desolate and dreary-looking range of hill ground 

 the more desolate-looking too from the ground 

 being covered with a kind of coarse grass, instead 

 of the rich brown- red of the heather. The number 

 of curlews and golden plovers is very great all 



