SALMON-SPEARING 169 



ferns and rock-plants that peeped timidly out here 

 and there ; and away at the head of the pool, the 

 finishing charm of the lovely spot, the tumbling 

 waterfall, which ever filled the air with its clamor- 

 ous voice, and beat the red waters below into 

 a mad whirl of eddies and bubbles and leaping 

 foam. Truly as sweet a picture as Nature ever 

 limned, which, had it been a few degrees farther 

 south, might have been an unfailing trap 

 for excursionists to expend their savings on a 

 " pack " in a covered carriage, and a cheap ride 

 uninsured, or might have had its heath- covered 

 banks dotted with picnic parties, and its waters 

 sweetened with the chicken-bones so deftly thrown 

 by the playful Miss Holiday ; but being, alas, poor 

 Monar — only one of many such scenes in the 

 bosom of the Highland hills, all inaccessible by 

 steam or jaunting-car — it must e'en remain un- 

 known, save to the privileged few, who now 

 looked at it w T ith the less noble view of how they 

 might draw a fish from its black depths. 



" Ah, wunna ye look at him ? Hech, doon 

 he comes ; ye maun e'en try again, my bonny mon." 



This address was called forth from honest Sandy 

 Macgregor, one of the gillies of the party, by the 

 sight of a salmon leaping at the falls, but who, 

 having failed to clear them, hit with a heavy 



