GROUSE 191 



little village of Kilmartin, and we have passed 

 first the old manse and the kirk, and the 

 ancient granite monuments and crosses which 

 represent an earlier form of Christianity, and 

 shortly afterwards the staring Free Church, with 

 "desirable villa residence" adjoining, a little 

 farther on just below the ruins of the old 

 castle of Kilmartin. Another old ruin, that of 

 Carnasary Castle, crowns the hill on the left, 

 for we are at a place where three passes con- 

 verge ; and the Highland chiefs of former days 

 had reasons, not always disinterested, for keep- 

 ing the highways under their immediate observa- 

 tion. A fair-sized burn the Scoinish runs in 

 a straight artificial course close by the side of 

 the road. As a fisherman, I regret that it was 

 not allowed to have its own wilful way ; but 

 it is easy to see that if the road was to possess 

 anything but an intermittent existence, the diver- 

 sion of the stream was a necessity. The old 

 river-course twisting and turning along the valley 

 to the left, with all the varieties of pool and 

 shallow, narrow and rapid, was doubtless much 

 more to the taste of trout and salmon, but 

 floods must have of necessity been frequent 

 and destructive. Now the fishing is not of 

 much account, and an occasional sea-trout after 

 a spate is all it affords to the legitimate angler, 

 although hundreds of salmon run up in the 

 autumn to spawn, and doubtless pay toll to 



