338 THE SALMON RIVERS OF SCOTLAND 



The Pattack rises from a small loch of the same name, lying south- 

 east of Loch Laggan, and runs almost due north as if it would 

 certainly join the Mashie, a high tributary of the Spey. When only 

 about a mile from the Mashie it is however abruptly turned off in 

 an acute angle backwards to the head of Loch Laggan. The Spean, 

 when it reaches Tulloch, on the West Highland Eailway, is joined 

 by the water from Loch Treig, and now passes along the floor of an 

 ancient lake site, with its well-defined terraces. 



All this water is, however, beyond the reach of salmon, and, I 

 fear, is likely to remain so. Leaving the gravelly streams of the old 

 lake bed, it cuts its way through a deep, rocky barrier, and shortly 

 afterwards plunges over the formidable falls of Inverlaer. Then 

 comes a gorge, after which another beautiful stretch of open, gravelly 

 water succeeds. But the same sort of rocky barrier again occurs, 

 after cutting through which the plunge over Mounessie Fall is made. 

 Those falls mark the furthest point to which Spean salmon can pos- 

 sibly ascend ; and I am informed by the river watchers that fish are 

 never seen jumping at the falls. Possibly the tremendous weight of 

 water which plunges unchecked into the pool below, a drop of about 

 23 feet, is too great to induce fish to do so. The gorge below gradu- 

 ally opens out again, and some inviting pools occur, with a ledgy 

 break here and there, before Spean Bridge is reached. 



The water from Mounessie to Spean Bridge forms the two top 

 beats of the Abinger fishings. Beat 1 is down to the burn at Corrie- 

 choillie, and has one boat on a nice pool near Roy Bridge. Beat 2 

 is from Corriechoillie to Spean Bridge. Between Spean Bridge and 

 Mucomer much of the river is unfishable, owing to its being in a 

 continuous deep gorge. 



In 1908 a fish of 43 Ib. was taken on the topmost beat in October. 



