62 THE SALMON RIVERS OF SCOTLAND 



ranging from 7/0 Limerick do\\'n to i^, and then from the end of 

 April they fall to the very smallest sizes. 



This twenty-two miles of river is divided into six beats. Two 

 rods go with the Syre shootings, which were for the past eleven 

 years in the hands of the late Mr. G. D. Stibbard, and are now held 

 by ]\fr. Dankwerts ; other two go with the Skelpick shootings, and 

 the remaining two belong to Dalvina, a lodge nearly opposite Syre, 

 until the ist of August, when one of them goes to the tenant of Ben 

 Chbreck shootings, at present occupied by Mr. Baxendale, the other 

 remaining with Dalivna, but up till the ist of August, Mr. A. Brockle- 

 hurst has both rods. 



At these three lodges, anglers put up for the spring ; the shooting 

 tenants themselves usually being the anglers. Sometimes it happens 

 that there is a sub-let, and anyone wishing to get a chance on the 

 Naver cannot do better than communicate with the Duke of Suther- 

 land's factor at Tongue, who generally can say if there is likely to be 

 a rod or two in the market. Whoever fishes No. i, the top beat, on 

 iMonday, finishes on No. 6, the lowest, on Saturday, which order lasts 

 all through the season. The rod on No. i Beat will then commence 

 on No. 2 Beat in the next season, and so removes down a beat every 

 year ; a very slow process, and it would be merrier for all if Sunday 

 were counted as a lishing day, by which arrangement the man who 

 had started on No. i on Monday and fished No. 6 on Saturday would, 

 in imagination, fish No. i again on Sunday, and go to No. 2 on 

 Monday. 



Skelpick Lodge, in addition to its rights over the different beats, 

 has also a separate and exclusive one of its o\vn, extending do^^Tlwa^d 

 for some two miles of both banks, and commencing from under the 

 lodge. The tenant, Mr. Erie Drax, who has fished the Naver off 

 and on for the past thirty years, tells me the six rod -holders pay £600 

 a year for the angling, but to secure sport they are obliged to rent 

 the netting, so as to give a chance for the fish to enter the river, and 

 consequently the net and coble at the mouth is not fished till the ist 

 of May, and even then it is not worked on Wednesdays. 



In June 1899, I stayed at Bettyhill Hotel to \'isit the Naver, 

 and on the evening of my arrival I joined the " look-out " party on 

 the high cliff overhanging Naver mouth, and saw them net a few 

 grilse. It so happened that evening I was attacked by a fit of 

 sleeplessness, so a little after midnight, in search of a soporific, I 

 stole downstairs to the coftee-room, where I had noticed a few books ; 

 snatching them up, I retreated to my couch and commenced to 

 examine them. The first had the not very cheerful title of Early 

 Graves, and was quickly discarded ; the second selection was called 

 Elijah and Ahab ; while the inscription on the back of the third was 

 A Candle Lighted by the Lord, and the three combined titles had the 

 desired effect without a perusal of the contents ! 



Each beat of the Naver has from nine to thirteen good pools. 



Beat I is from " Dalmallard " to " Dalharrold " ; Beat 2 from 

 Syre Pool to Upper Craggie ; Beat 3 from the Boat Pool to Dawson's 



