144 AN ANGLER'S RAMBLES 



such a river to entertain, I deferred presenting a note of request 

 with which I had been furnished, making application in my 

 favour for a day or two's salmon-fishing; another consideration 

 being my want of provision for engaging on favourable terms in that 

 manner of sport, and, I may add, my very limited acquaintance 

 with it at that time. I enjoyed, however, after opportunities, 

 through the kindness both of Sir George Mackenzie and Horatio 

 Ross, Esq. (the latter being lessee of the shootings and fishings 

 of Coul and Craigdarroch in 1844), of judging, when more com- 

 petent to do so, of the Blackwater as a salmon river, and of 

 forming from it, in that capacity, some views or opinions bearing 

 upon the instincts and fresh-water habits of the solar. 



In the Angler 's Companion I have entered pretty fully into 

 the details of sport met with at various times on the Blackwater, 

 and several of the lakes near Contin ; and having no intention 

 to interpolate these chapters with a repetition of matter already 

 published, I shall simply state that, on that section of the Rasay 

 which extends betwixt Loch Grarve and the Rogie Falls, I caught, 

 in 1835 and 1836, also in 1844, with fly and spinning tackle, 

 several splendid specimens of river-trout. On the llth of July 

 1835, out of sixteen fish which graced my creel, two were trout 

 of four pounds each ; the next was a three-pounder ; the fourth 

 a pound lighter, and three others ranked above the pound. The 

 stretch of water I refer to is of a mixed character, and em- 

 braces, along with several dead reaches and pools, a small 

 lake. It speaks at once to the eye to its being occupied by 

 pike as well as trout, containing, as it does, ready shelter in 

 great abundance. 



Some rivers and lakes, I have noticed, are liable to singular 

 alternations, affecting their occupancy by the Indus and the fario. 

 St. Mary's Loch, the Teviot, and the Till, in connexion with 

 Tweed, may be cited as exemplifications of this feature ; and I 

 have reason to think, judging from a visit paid to it in 1844, that 



