204 DAYS STOLEN FOR SPORT 



trout in their feeding were as indiscriminate and 

 hasty as their captors had so lately been and were 

 ready to take any fly, in any place, however thrown. 

 It was such a day as sends a novice home with 

 pride that he has so nearly learned an art which 

 his elders are said not to have mastered yet. There 

 were fine brown trout, too, among the captures ; 

 but Marcus had the prizes, two splendid salmon, 

 one of which weighed fifteen pounds, the other 

 nine. 



"Quickly come and quickly go" is the case with 

 spates in Highland streams and by next noon the 

 river had returned to normal level, to new sobriety 

 and gentle ripplings among the boulders. But, 

 before it reached no-fishing limit, it gave to us 

 more of its game sea-trout and one more salmon. 



The Shiel has this advantage over many mountain 

 streams that in its loch, within a half-mile of the 

 hotel door, there is always a hope of fish, so that 

 fishers need not rust while waiting for the river's 

 rising. 



We spent a day, a delightful day, in exploring 

 the chief burn spoken of above. " Burn " is but 

 a tiny name for such a stream up which, at times, 

 good sea-trout make adventurous way to pools of 

 the quaintest shape. Some are broad and shallow, 

 where a shoal of fish may be seen hiding beneath 

 the eddying foam ; while others are deep, long and 

 narrow, not three feet wide, where a fish when 

 hooked is almost sure to leap from the narrow 

 trough to the bare rocks, there sometimes to free 

 himself and then flop back to the trough again. 



The hotel fishing includes five good pools in 

 the main stream, beginning with the one beneath 



