CH. IV. SHIN RIVER. 49 



tion beautiful beyond description — at any rate it 

 is so on a fine day; but situated as it is at the 

 end of Loch Shin, a Highland lake about eighteen 

 miles in length, the prospect from the inn windows 

 must be very different on a wild autumn day, with 

 wind and sleet driving up from the west, from 

 what it was on the fine June evening on which 

 I arrived. The view combines the most happy 

 mixture of mountain, water, and green herbage, 

 dotted with fine old birch-trees : a few picturesque 

 buildings, too, which are seen from the inn, add 

 to the happy and riant expression of the scene. 



The Shin river, which runs out of the lake near 

 the inn, is a fine and picturesque stream, charming 

 to the eye of both painter and fisherman. The 

 Shin salmon are of a large size and very plentiful. 

 I stopped for half an hour or so at the falls, two 

 or three miles from the lake, and saw a great 

 number of salmon, and even trout, leaping ; some 

 of them succeeded in passing up, others fell back 

 into the pool below, in consequence of not having 

 leaped with sufficient strength, or from having mis- 

 calculated the distance and angle at which to take 

 the leap. All the scenery about the falls of the 

 Shin is very beautiful : the steep and lofty hill 

 which comes down to the water's edge is covered 

 with wood, and, at this time of the year, was alive 



VOL. I. e 



