THE FINDHORN 157 



are numerous and inclined to run up the river, the old man catches 

 a considerable number ; though the capture of every fish is only 

 attained by a struggle of life and death between man and salmon, 

 for the least slip would send the former into the river, whence he 

 could never come out alive. I never see him catch one without 

 feeling fully convinced that he will follow the example of his pre- 

 decessor in the place, who was washed away one fine day from the 

 rock, and not found for some days, when his body was taken out of 

 the river several miles down." l 



This picturesque old fisherman and his manner of fishing can no 

 longer be seen. Whether or not the salmon claimed him in the deep 

 pool, I know not. At Eelugas the Divie tributary, which receives 

 the waters of the Dorback Burn from Lochin Dorb with its castel- 

 lated island, once a stronghold of the " Wolf of Badenoch," enters 

 the main river in a birch-clad defile similar to that of the Findhorn. 

 Some distance lower down is the curious rock-sculptured pool called 

 Sluie Long Pool, which acts as a hold for salmon at most times, and 

 has been the scene of some extraordinary catches by net in the past, 

 as the following paragraph taken from the 13th volume of the new 

 Statistical Account of Scotland shows. It is dated February, 1842. 



" There is a considerable salmon fishing within the Parish, at 

 Sluie, the property of the Earl of Moray. Four men are employed 

 there to fish with a boat and draught nets the Sluie Pool and two 

 other pools near to it, with two or three more considerably further 

 down the river. Before salmon fishing near the sea was so well 

 understood as it is now, the fishery at Sluie was of great celebrity. 

 It appears by a letter dated 7th June, 1648, from the Earl of Moray 

 to his Countess, that "in one night, on the pool of Sluie alone, 1300 

 salmon were taken ; and at one draught 620 scores. About thirty- 

 six years ago, 360 salmon were caught in the same pool in one day. 

 But the number now taken in all the pools connected with the net 

 fishing there does not now average about 700 yearly." 



This is second only to the miraculous draught of fishes reported 

 in the same account as having been made in the Thurso (vide p. 242). 

 Lord Moray does not now allow the Sluie pool to be netted, but it is 

 only 7J miles by the river from the head of Findhorn Bay, and to 

 confine early fish to this seems a pity. The opening of the falls 

 would not be matter of great difficulty, and would, I certainly 

 think, be in the best interests of the river. The woods of Darnaway 

 and Altyre and the Meads of St. John below Sluie now expand 



l lbid. p. 211. 



