AUGUST 191 



long and intimate acquaintance with Scottish sport and 

 wild nature, it is worth putting upon record, if it were 

 only as a warning against the subjectivity of ocular 

 evidence. The each-locha is a current tradition on the 

 shores of Loch Arkaig ; there are several persons living 

 reputed to have seen it ; therefore, when a middle-aged 

 gentleman familiar with country sights and creatures, 

 suddenly sees, in the very haunts of the monster, a 

 large animal which he does not recognise, the inference 

 does not seem strained that he has beheld what the 

 natives call the each-locha. Mark you, he did not tell 

 me that he had seen the genuine monster; he only 

 described to me the impression made upon his eyes by 

 what he did see that of a large, unknown animal. I 

 have received from an Irish gentleman a minute dis- 

 cription of a living toad which he saw taken out of a 

 block of solid stone in a quarry. Nothing was further 

 from my suspicion than any attempt at gammon upon 

 his part ; he simply told what he believed he saw, but 

 I didn't believe for a moment that the toad had really 

 come out of the stone. But in the Loch Arkaig case, I 

 confess to having leant to the belief that there might 

 be some reality in the water-horse after all However, 

 the pleasing illusion was created only to be dispelled. A 

 certain stalker was on deck at the time and saw the 

 animal. He is a Highlander, and lives on the shore 

 of the loch; if any one might be found to take a 

 sensational view of the occurrence, here was the man. 

 Questioned about it several weeks afterwards, he replied 

 in perfect matter-of-fact : 



