THE KIRKAIG 55 



the river for July and August, when he was thought very fortunate 

 to get fifty-three salmon and grilse in that period ; but this gentle- 

 man, in addition to being a good fisherman, was also a very hard 

 worker. 



At present the angling is let to Mr. Mackenzie, the landlord of 

 the Culag Hotel at Loch Inver. He divides it into two beats, on 

 which there is ample room, and charges twelve-and-sixpence a day 

 to each rod. The angling is all done from the right bank, conse- 

 quently it is a left-handed river ; there is hardly any spawning 

 ground, and it is wonderful how fish spawn in it at all. From the 

 sea up the fall the pools run as follows : The Rock Pool, not of 

 much good ; the Elders Pool, good and largo ; the Old Bridge 

 Pool, a very pretty and likely one ; Heather Pool ; Island Stream 

 Pool, a big water catch ; Hazel Pool, very good in high water ; 

 Little Kirkaig Pool ; Turn Pool ; Wether Pool ; Red Pool, and 

 two streams below. 



Here the Lower Beat ends, and without any time passed in 

 "playing or landing" it will take three hours' hard work to fish 

 it up. 



The Upper Beat is rather more " scrambly " than the lower 

 one. The Shady Pool can only be reached by a very steep descent 

 and a hard chmb up again — is often passed on this account ; the 

 Arrow Pool, very good ; the Bow Pool ; the Otter Pool, a fine one, 

 which my ghillie would call the " Orrter Pool "; the Red Lamp Stream 

 Pool ; Little Fall Pool, a very big pot ; Spring Pool, good ; Lower 

 Nettle Pool ; Upper Nettle Pool ; Lower Smash Pool ; Upper 

 Smash Pool ; the Fall Pool. 



All these last three pools are separated from each other by 

 wall-like chffs descending sheer into deep water. The angler has 

 to scramble up and down to fish each one, and as the names tell, 

 it is quite impossible to follow a fish out of the two lower. It is 

 just possible to follow out of the FaU Pool by coming up the 

 bank, but the proceeding is very unlikely to end with flying 

 colours. 



The approach to this last-named pool was, until lately, a really 

 nasty one, requiring quite a gymnastic performance. After a 

 few times one got used to it, but the first attempt always puzzled 

 a stranger — so much so that a friend of mine slipped, fell, and 

 bounded from the hard rock with a thud into the horrible, black, 

 boihng pool below. Luckily he was not stunned or crippled, and 

 being an extra good swimmer, with a very steady nerve, he came 

 out none the worse ; but had he not possessed these qualifications, 

 his chance would indeed have been a poor one. The approach 

 has now been made easier, and is nothing to be dreaded. 



When there are fish in the river they may be seen continually 

 jumping at the faU ; a hopeless task, but a matter that the fish 

 seem very slow to learn. The Kirkaig fish used to be considerably 

 larger than those of the Inver, for when I was fishing the latter 

 river in 1857 the gentleman who had the Kirkaig also lived at 



