184 ON A HIGHLAND LOCH 



prime lustre of their silvery mail. Later you may 

 overtake a few of them in the upper reaches and 

 inland lochs, but their brilliancy is then tarnished, and 

 the dark skin seems to belong to a different species 

 from the fairy-like creature which left the tide. 



To-night, in the short hour at my disposal, nothing 

 noteworthy occurs. In this pool, the nearest in the 

 river to the sea, the big fellows have not tarried ; it is 

 tenanted by a shoal of finnocks herlings, as they are 

 called further south the grilse stage of the sea-trout, 

 lovely bright little fish averaging half a pound; and 

 half-a-dozen of these reappear a little later as a savoury 

 fry on the dinner- table of the yacht. To-morrow 

 ah ! who shall tell about the morrow ? The river runs 

 out very fast; without more rain little will be done 

 there to-morrow, and the sky to west and north wears 

 an undesirably serene aspect. 



When the morrow came the signal cascade had dis- 

 appeared from the hill, whereby I knew that the river 

 was too low for much sport. To my bow, however, 

 there were two strings. The river runs out of a loch, 

 on the loch is a boat, and in the loch store of salmon 

 and sea-trout. Thither I wended my way, four miles 

 up the glen. 



Ah ! such a glen. On either side tower the great 

 hills, those on the south side still draped with gracious 

 woodland, planted by no human hand. There is not a 

 house in sight, nor sign of human creature, save the 

 bridle path, and here and there a wooden bridge across 

 the river. Yet there is never silence there always the 



