A PLEA FOR TOURISTS, 33 



A PLEA FOE TOURISTS. 



THE only disadvantage that we know of, following on 

 the late enormous accessions to the brotherhood of 

 the gentle craft, is that it is now extremely difficult 

 to get a day's salmon-fishing in any part of the 

 country. Once it was truly " the poor man's recrea- 

 tion ;" but that day has gone by, and in no part of the 

 kingdom is it less practicable for a stranger to get a 

 day's sport than where salmon rivers are most numer- 

 ous and fish most abundant namely, in the High- 

 lands of Scotland. 



The railway runs some two hundred and fifty 

 miles north of Edinburgh : before the grilse season 

 is at its height, the heart of Sutherland will be acces- 

 sible by train, and in that long stretch of country the 

 traveller is scarcely ever out of sight of some noble 

 stream, teeming with salmon. But how few are the 

 stations at which he can pause with the assurance 

 that for a moderate payment, or, indeed, for any pay- 

 ment at all, he can have a day or two's fishing with 

 the chance of taking salmon or grilse. Even trout- 

 fishing is not unfrequently refused, which is a mistake, 

 on the part of salmon-breeders, as there is no more 



