CHAPTER XVIII 



THE LAXFORD 



Drains sixty-seven square miles of very rocky, steep country, 

 and has its source in several burns running into the head of Loch 

 More, up which salmon used to find their way in the spawning 

 season, but now, owing to the scarcity, they are seldom seen. Loch 

 More is some three miles long, and about a half wide. At the west 

 end it joins on to Little Loch More just opposite the Forest Lodge, 

 rented for many years past by the late Duke of Westminster. 

 On issuing from this small loch the river flows for about a mile 

 through reedy, marshy ground, until it reaches Loch Stack, along- 

 side of which, for about two miles and a half, is the high road to 

 Scourie and Riconich. At Stack Lodge the river leaves the loch 

 and has a run of about three miles into the sea at Loch Laxford. 

 It is an angler's ideal river, with rapids and deep pools following 

 each other in quick succession. For those who like hard work 

 it is perhaps fished somewhat too easily, for no waders are wanted, 

 while a good broad and well-kept path runs along each bank, the 

 left one being the favourite. 



The Duke of Westminster had the whole river, which is care- 

 fully preserved, and opens at the odd date of the nth of February. 

 I say " odd " because it puzzles me to understand why a river 

 should be declared " open " at that date when it is a well-known 

 fact that before the ist of June a clean-run fish is hardly ever seen 

 in it, and even the bag-nets of this coast do not begin work until 

 the end of March. Is this date thus fixed so early in the year still 

 continued in memory of the old times, when angling for kelts, 

 kelt-spearing, etc., was a common form of sport and amuse- 

 ment ? 



The right of fishing by net and coble at the mouth was held by 

 the Duke of Westminster, but not exercised, and though a watcher 

 is kept there to prevent poaching, yet the crews of lawless steam 

 trawlers often rob the loch of quantities of salmon and sea trout 

 waiting for a rainfall to take them up the river. Like many another 

 one, this renowned water has fallen on evil times, for the angling 

 has steadily and greatly deteriorated during the last twenty years. 

 The late Duke usually gave the fishing for July and August to Lord 

 Leicester, and when he first fished Laxford it vv'as not an uncommon 

 matter for him to have eight or ten fish a day to his rod, while one of 

 his sons coming behind him would have another four or five. In 



