THE UPPER BEATS 237 



the best being a long letter written most modestly by Mr. Buckley 

 to Mr. Grimble and published in the latter's book on The Salmon 

 Rivers of Scotland. In this the writer says that his reason for 

 using a trout rod was because it " was more handy for bringing the 

 fish near to the gaff," and that when he saw the fish so madly on 

 the rise he recollected that the late Mr. Eichard Rutherford, the 

 farmer of Kildonan, had once killed 21 fish, mostly grilse, in a day, 

 so thought he would try to beat this. It would appear that 

 Buckley stopped when he had done so ; but the total weight of his 

 catch was 230 lb., or an average of nearly 10 Ib. a piece. With a 

 grilse rod, he says, he might perhaps have had 40 or 50 fish. Yet 

 he preferred to stick to the trout tackle. 



Higher scores have at times been made on several rivers, the top 

 score of all being, I think, Mr. Naylor's 54 salmon taken from the 

 first loch of the Grimersta in the Lewis (vide, p. 303), but I think 

 all performances pale before Buckley's 22 fish, averaging nearly 

 10 lb., and including 2 fish of 15 lb., landed single-handed on trout 

 tackle. 



