JANUARY 13 



which the weather became very bright and warm and 

 the water fell very low, and I only landed one fish in the 

 last five days. My companion, the late Mr. F. Mason, 

 getting weary of whipping a dwindling river in hot 

 sunshine, determined to have a cast on Loch More, 

 which used not in those days to be fished before April. 

 It is a ten-mile drive thither from Brawl Castle where 

 we were staying, and motor-cars had not yet come into 

 vogue. Moreover, on arriving at the loch Mason found 

 the boathouse locked up, and had to force open the 

 door ; so it was about two o'clock before he got afloat. 

 The air was warm and springlike, with a gentle breeze ; 

 but in that northern latitude it is dark before four 

 o'clock. At that hour Mason was back at the boat- 

 house with four salmon, from 18 Ib. to 20 lb., killed on 

 the fly. I have no doubt whatever that these fish, 

 belonging to the winter run, would have been back in 

 the salt water before the usual opening of the fishing 

 on Loch More on 1st April. The alternative proposition 

 that they would have remained in the loch for nine 

 months, with no food to nourish them, and then have 

 repaired to the spawning grounds in the tributaries to 

 the loch, seems incredible. 



The Thurso is the northernmost river in Scotland, 

 flowing into the sea 28 miles west of John-o'-Groat's ; 

 let me now record an experience in the southernmost 

 river of Scotland, namely, the Cree, whereof the 

 estuary in Wigtown Bay lies several miles south of the 

 latitude of Newcastle-on-Tyne. In the year 1900 I 

 became joint-tenant with five other anglers of the rod 

 and net fishings in the Cree and its tributary the 



