88 THE SALMON RIVERS OF SCOTLAND 



numbers have fallen off, there are always some big ones got each 

 season. 



With regard to these special prizes, it is curious how unevenly 

 they are distributed ; some men have the luck in a few seasons to 

 kill one, two, or three fish of 40 lb. or over — others go all their lives 

 and never get a monster. In 1884 there was a keeper of Lord Bread- 

 albane's who had fished this river for thirty years, and his hea\'iest 

 fish was 37 lb. ; in 1885 he had one of 45 lb., followed by another of 

 46 lb. a week or two later. The late Sir John Bennett Lawes took 

 one of 54! lb. out of Pol Verie. Colonel James Thorpe had one of 

 52 lb. out of the Inverawe Cruive, and several to his rod out of the 

 Cruive Pool of 36 to 39 lb., but, tantalising to relate, never quite 

 40 lb. 



The schoolmaster at Taynuilt had one of 54 lb. out of Cassan 

 Dhu, the top pool of the hotel water, and fully a mile from the sea. 

 I was out that day and met him at the Clay Pool on my way up 

 stream ; the fish was still going very strongly. " Foul hokit ! " 

 cried he as we passed, and little thinking he was fighting such a 

 giant, and incited to fresh exertions by the sight of my straight rod 

 and his bent one, I, unluckily, did not turn back to see the end of 

 the fight, which eventually finished at Crubeg, the lowest pool on 

 the water, and out of which it is impossible to follow a fish making 

 for the sea. 



This was a right good performance, of which anyone might fairly 

 be proud ; only a tall, active man could have carried it through, as 

 in following from the Otter Pool into the Stepping Stones the water 

 was up to the schoolmaster's chin, and at this part of the fight a 

 man five inches shorter would probably have been beaten. Those of 

 my readers who know the Taynuilt Hotel water will recognise I 

 have not said one word too much about this remarkable feat. I also 

 had the luck one day to get a splendid June fish of 38 lb. out of the 

 Long Pool, and as I was alone and had to gaff it for myself in deep 

 water, I went home with my tail cocked ! 



At the Brander Pass, where the loch gradually narrows into the 

 river, the scenery is wild, bleak, and rugged to a degree, and not until 

 Archie jM'Donald's cottage (Colonel Murray's fisherman) is passed 

 do the hills lower into pleasanter outUnes to become by degrees 

 beautifully wooded, though from the bridge dowmward the banks 

 are in many places deep and precipitous, and afford some pretty 

 scrambling. 



From the top of the water down to the Three Ash Trees both 

 banks are clear of timber ; but nevertheless, on those days when 

 the wind roars through the pass, many a hook may be smashed on 

 the bouldered banks. 



The east side of the river, belonging chiefly to Lord Breadalbane, 

 and let to Colonel Murray of Polmaise, is by far the best part of the 

 water. Here some of the pools have to be fished from planks carried 

 out far into the river by the aid of iron stanchions sunk into large 

 immovable boulders, the water at the bank running so deep as to 



