FISHING ON SALT-WATER LOCHS. 443 



The gun was levelled, the report rang through the darkness, 

 and when the glare of the flash had passed away, a creature 

 of some sort was discerned floundering in the sea. As neither 

 master nor gillie felt tempted to approach it, they ran to the 

 house for a lantern. But at this crisis dark hints were 

 thrown out concerning a certain functionary who had been 

 keeping his holiday along the shore. Could he be the poor 

 victim ? With this uncomfortable suspicion in his mind, the 

 shooter walked down with the lantern party, who were also 

 joined by his afternoon's companion. On wading to their 

 prey, instead of a dead man or dead seal, lay extended a fine 

 specimen of a male heron ! 



This story suggests another, told by Scroop, of the witch 

 killed by silver shot while riding through the air to the cairn on 

 the top of Ben-y-Gloe. No one dared to go near the spot till 

 morning light, when lying dead on the top of the cairn was 

 found the body of a large blue heron. 



A sea-loch, surrounded as it is by so much animal life on 

 wave and " wind grieved " shore, is always a source of great 

 interest to any one who cares for natural history. It is also 

 of much advantage to every true sportsman when it bounds 

 his shooting- quarters, as so often happens in the Western 

 Highlands. 



THE SCRINGE-NET. 



All netting is poaching, not sporting : but this record of 

 sea-loch fishing would not be complete without some notice 

 of the scringe-net perhaps the most picturesque among them 

 all. The wild effect is heightened by its being only practised 

 after nightfall, when advantage is always taken of quiet 

 weather and an untroubled sea. My fishings in the Sound of 

 Mull comprised two large bays viz., Garmony and Scalastal, 

 each having its complement of " shots " or clear places where 

 the net can be dragged. At the turn of the tides, once 



