THE BERRIEDALE AND LANGWELL 7 



one, as judging distance across water is apt to be deceptive. Be 

 this as it may, certain it is that nets fishing in such unusually close 

 proximity to the mouth of two rivers must greatly reduce the 

 numbers of fish that would ascend them, and both have good 

 spawning grounds. 



The same report of the Fishery Board already mentioned states 

 later on that " from six to eight thousand fish, chiefly grilse, are 

 annually taken in this District," a somewhat puzzling statement, 

 as only a few lines before it is expressly set forth that there is " not 

 a single District Board in the County of Caithness." Probably 

 the description is intended to apply to the united bag-nets fishing 

 the mouths of the two rivers under discussion, and the rest of the 

 eight miles of coast up to and north of the Dunbeath River. 



During my stroll up the beautifully wooded banks of the Lang- 

 well we met a ghillie exercising a fine team of black and white 

 pointers, the wild deer feeding in the grassy strath below taking no 

 notice of them. On reaching the head keeper's house, a little 

 farther up the glen, we found some fifteen stags, with horns about 

 three parts grown, and, of course, still in velvet, lying on a grass plat 

 in front of the kennels, and it was indeed an odd sight to see the 

 keeper unbolt a door and let loose upwards of a dozen fine deer- 

 hounds. Out they dashed, bounding about in all directions, full 

 in sight of the deer. Then a word from the keeper sent them all 

 off into another grass field, the deer meanwhile hardly troubling to 

 move. From here I was taken to the splendidly placed house 

 of Langwell, with its wonderful sea view ; and arrived there, a 

 charming old housekeeper invited me inside. And now, if I had the 

 pen of The World correspondent, who used to wi'ite those amusing 

 articles " Celebrities at Home," I could have written a long letter on 

 " The Duke of Portland at Home." Suffice it, however, to say 

 that of the many pretty things I saw, that which interested me most 

 was a well set-up salmon of 62 lb. ! hauled ashore by Adam Mac- 

 pherson from the Ben-iedale nets in June 1894. Length, 515 in. ; 

 girth, 29I in. A magnificent specimen, which no angler could 

 set eyes on without feeling a burning desire for a chance of trying 

 conclusions with a similar one. This big fish could hardly have 

 wished to ascend either the Berriedale or the LangAvell. Macpherson 

 thinks he was a Norway giant that had lost his way ; more probably, 

 however, it was a Tay fish who had struck the shore very far north 

 of his own river. 



Close to this " sockdoUager " there was a finely shaped fish of 

 exactly half the size, taken by the Duke on the 28th of April 1897, 

 from the Englishman's Pool of the Garry of Loch Oich. Near this 

 were two interesting specimens of natural history, one in the shape 

 of a bee-eater, in fine plumage, killed in Langwell Gardens ; the 

 other being a pole-cat, now so nearly extinct in Scotland. Then 

 came the billiard-room, a glorious sight to the eyes of any deerstalker, 

 for on the walls hang a splendid collection of Langwell Forest heads, 

 amongst which are many curious malformations ; and here I could 



