38 AN ANGLER'S RAMBLES 



and was eager, after fulfilling her part of the agreement, to 

 return home, I had to push my way to the only habitation, made 

 recognisable as such by the light proceeding from it, in view. 

 Fortunately it was the abode of the ferrymen, and as fortunately 

 I found them to be obliging, good-natured fellows, who thought 

 nothing of being roused from their slumbers by a Sassenach to 

 do night- work. 



On being ferried across it was as dark as Erebus during the 

 passage I foolishly intrusted to one of them the care of my 

 fishing-rods, three in number. How it was managed I do not 

 know ; but on my arrival at the inn at Kirkabol, about three in 

 the morning, T found the tops, all but one, seriously injured, 

 and in order to repair them was necessitated to expend a large 

 portion of the forenoon. This done, I hurried to Tongue House, 

 in order to obtain the necessary permit from Mr. Horsburgh, 

 the late factor on the Reay district of the Duke's estates. 

 Much to my disappointment, he had just left home, on the way 

 to Bettyhill of Farr, situated on the Naver river. Having 

 hired a gig, I pushed forward in the same direction ; but it was 

 late in the afternoon before I met with Mr. Horsburgh, and ob- 

 tained from him the desired liberty. Of all the rivers in Suther- 

 landshire, the Naver, in the state in which I saw it, is certainly 

 the most attractive ; I mean to anglers. My friend Professor 

 Blackie, in his review of the changes it has undergone, puts 

 them and their likings quite out of consideration. Its course 

 embraces, independent of the ample lake bearing the same name, 

 at least twenty miles of choice pool and stream, which, all ob- 

 structions to the ascent of fish removed, presents as fine a range 

 of salmon-casts as can be wished for. It was four P.M. before I 

 wetted fly in this river. Its streams were in a highly swollen 

 state, and it was impossible to detect with exactness the usual 

 fastnesses of the royal fish. Not being satisfied with the state 

 of the water at the spot I was recommended to try, I wandered 



