94 FORAYS AMONG SALMON AND DEER. 



mistake into a caldron of boiling water placed pur- 

 posely on the ledge above. 



Traps of the above description are, I believe, common 

 enough throughout the Highlands ; and at some hotels 

 tourists are constantly regaled on fish caught in this 

 way. Of course if a salmon can rush up a fall twenty 

 feet in sheer perpendicular height, he can surmount a 

 cascade, or series of falls, considerably higher, where the 

 inequalities of the surface would aid him materially in 

 the ascent. 



But to return. After a walk of about a mile we 

 arrived at the loch. Embosomed in the hills, it lay 

 before us unruffled by the gentlest breath of wind. 

 A high cliff, rising abruptly from one bank, cast its 

 shadow nearly across the loch, whose waters seemed 

 almost inky-black from their great depth, though its 

 whole extent was not more than a quarter of a mile 

 square. At one end there were a few weeds, and less 

 depth of water. Thither therefore we bent our steps, 

 hoping to find some of the smaller fish feeding ; as 

 there seemed no probability, in the present calm, of 

 the larger bull-trout being drawn from their haunts 

 below. Three wild-duck rose from the shelter of the 

 weeds, as we were putting on our flies, and with a 

 quack of alarm, winged their way to the highest 

 reaches of the Redburn. After wading some way into 

 the waters, so as to cast beyond the weeds, we caught 

 five or six trout, none of them more than half a pound 

 in weight ; and then walking round the shore, we tried 

 the deeper water, but still as before the calm was 

 against us, and though our flies were continually 

 changed, we caught nothing more. Once indeed I 

 raised a good fish with a large black fly, but as he had 

 unfortunately felt the hook, nothing could induce him 

 to make a second essay. In the best weather angling 



