32 AN ANGLER'S RAMBLES 



fact of not observing a single fish plunge throughout the whole 

 stretch of water, extending for at least three miles, fished over 

 by me, up and down, on this occasion. 



On the 14th I crossed over to the Kirkaig, with old Sandy 

 M'Torquil, the pensioner, as my guide ; but beyond basketing a 

 few finnocks achieved nothing. Salmon-fishing was evidently at 

 a stand-still, so resolving in the meantime to give it up, I accepted 

 Mr. Dunbar's kind offer to accompany Mr. Fitzgibbon and myself 

 to the lower end of Loch Assynt ; after testing which, we were 

 promised the opportunity of forming an acquaintance with 

 some of the smaller trouting lochs (there are at least two 

 hundred belonging to the district) in its vicinity. It became 

 necessary, in order to fish the latter properly, to transport to 

 them a boat the margins of most of them being unsafe to ven- 

 ture on with the foot ; and all access to where the trout lay being 

 shut up at that season of the year by aquatic vegetation. Their 

 proximity to the Inver, however, at a point where fishing-cobles 

 were kept, made this a matter of little difficulty. In the Angler's 

 Companion I find I have already taken notice of a haul made 

 by Dunbar with the long-net at a bend on the Inver, for the pur- 

 pose of showing us how prolific and fish-sustaining this river 

 really is. The interlude I refer to was performed on our way 

 up, and although Mr. Dunbar expressed himself dissatisfied with 

 the result, in the matter of yellow trout particularly, it quite 

 astonished the lookers-on. 



I may here mention that, while at Loch Inver, I dedicated two 

 or three hours to the testing of the trouting capabilities of its 

 river. The scene of my operations was at the head of one of its 

 expansions, not very far from Loch Assynt, and as the sky was 

 cloudless and the day calm, I had resort to my favourite summer 

 lure, the worm. In the time above specified, my diary speaks to 

 my having taken twenty-five trout, weighing upwards of eleven Ibs. 



Reverting to our exploring trip with Dunbar, we made trial of 



