34 FISHING GOSSIP. 
deadly foe to the ova and young fry than a lusty 
yellow trout. Happy they who can afford to keep a 
snug box by a Highland river, and warn off intruders! 
But may they be happier still—and with the memory of 
former courtesies before us, we freely admit that there 
are many such—who, having this power, have also 
the heart to use it liberally ; who make glad the soul 
of wandering fishermen in the north—men willing to 
pay either in coin or gratitude for a day’s sport, 
though they cannot rent a river. 
In the grilse season—in July and August—when 
most folk love to go a-pleasuring, at least some parts 
of these northern rivers might be made accessible to 
the tourist without prejudice to the sport of the legi- 
timate proprietor. The fish are all on the move ; you 
may see them in shoals rushing over the fords, and 
sunning themselves in joyous leaps, as they plunge 
into the deep water above. Do you think they are 
to stop there? Not they. On they go, further and 
further every day, up the rapids, through the long 
silvery pools, over the cataracts, into the narrow 
glens among the birches, where the water is all white 
with foam and the sound of its broken fall is inces- 
sant. There—the exuberance of their joy sated at 
last—they “skulk” among the rocks in nooks and 
crannies known only to themselves, impervious to the 
wiles of the fisher, until the time arrives when they 
proceed to the great business of their life, and the 
