AND ANGLING SONGS. 129 



expense of doing so being a mere trifle ; but that this design 

 was ever put into execution I have not been able to ascertain. 

 The feasibility of the project, however, appears to have been 

 unquestioned, and the results anticipated were set down as of 

 some importance, access being thereby given to a reach of 

 spawning-ground characterized as about the best in Scotland. 



This assertion, however, as to the superior nature of the 

 breeding accommodation, is to be received with some degree of 

 reserve. It plainly refers to that singular accumulation of sand 

 at the head of Loch Laggan, formed by its main feeder, the 

 Pattaig, which mass of detritus has been resolved, by the joint 

 action of wind and water, into an extensive shoal, occupying 

 scores of acres. Similar accumulations, but on a much smaller 

 scale, are to be found in other Highland lochs Loch Shin, for 

 instance. But although, during winter, these may reap the 

 benefit of being traversed by a perceptible current a condition 

 which, as respects deposited salmon spawn, is essential to the 

 vitality and hatching of the ova still they want the character- 

 istics of fertile breeding-ground. They are deficient in that 

 special requisite compactness. The material of which they are 

 composed is much too fine and shifty in its nature. There is 

 no shelter in combination with it. In fact, it is not the sort of 

 substance, or mixture of substances, to which salmon, for spawn- 

 ing purposes, are inclined to resort. At the same time, in 

 regard to Loch Laggan, independent altogether of this reach of 

 presumed accommodation, I have no doubt, in the case of a free 

 approach being opened up, coupled with the introduction of 

 impregnated salmon ova into properly selected portions of the 

 Pattaig or Upper Spean a process which, as a matter of course, 

 should be associated on all occasions with the extension of 

 breeding territory, otherwise the experiment cannot be looked 

 upon as completed that the district fishings will gradually 

 become improved. 



