JULY 167 



midge would bear his share in the fray were he suit- 

 ably armed, but he has no organ to bite or suck 

 withal) must be incalculable. 



Having already dealt succinctly in these notes with 

 what specialists have learnt and taught about the 

 natural history of midges,^ I have nothing more to 

 say on that head. My purpose is to make a clean 

 breast of it by relating how I suffered ignominious 

 defeat under the assault of myriads of Ceratopogon. 



The Water of Luce, flowing into the head of Luce 

 Bay, is famous for the abundance and goodly size of 

 its sea-trout, and in the first flood after mid-summer 

 one may reasonably expect a pull from salmon or 

 grilse.* It is a pretty angling stream when in fishing 

 trim, rolling its dark-brown waters through rocky 

 gorges, anon pouring them swiftly between piles of 

 flood-borne shingle or sweeping in tranquil curves 

 under cliffs draped with birch and rowan. As a 

 salmon river she has but two drawbacks. First, she 

 runs out so fast after a flood (especially a summer 

 spate) that one must catch her on the hop, so to 

 speak, or miss the chance of a fish. For instance, it 

 is recorded in my fishing book that there was a tre- 

 mendous flood on 21st October 1870, which drowned 

 thirty sheep on a meadow just above the railway 

 viaduct. That was in the morning. I arrived from 

 Edinburgh that evening at 4.30 p.m. ; there was still 

 an hour of daylight ; I hurried down to the river just 

 below the viaduct, found it still very high, but fishable, 



Memories of the Months, fourth series, pp. 282, 283. 

 ' The local term for grilse is ' graul.' 



