THE AWE 91 



nearly a certainty, though prohibited on Coionel Murray's side of 

 the water. 



No. 4. The Black Pool, a quarter of a mile lower down, is a 

 good strong-running catch, easily cast, and seldom without a fish 

 in it. 



No. 5. The Seal Pool, about a hundred yards below, is very 

 similar in character and reputation. 



Here it is as well to mention that the opposite side, from the 

 Brander to a little below the tail of the Seal, belongs to Mr. W. C. 

 Muir of Innistrynich. He holds two days a week in his own hands, 

 and lets two with Hayfield House, and the other two go with New 

 Inverawe. Mr. Hartley, who has the fishing of the opposite bank 

 for three days a week, tells me that the five or six pools he has 

 used to be very much better than they are — that of late years the 

 droughts and hard netting below have combined to render sport 

 very poor, and that ten years ago he used to get more fish from 

 only two pools fished two days a week than he now gets from 

 double the number of pools and another day. From the Seal 

 Pool down both banks for a considerable distance are fished by 

 Colonel Murray. 



The next pool, No. 6, is Pol Verie, quite the best in the river^ 

 an easy pool to look at and fish in imagination, but yet requiring 

 long and neat casting in practice. The water so runs that it is 

 no waste of time to first fish it down with a short line and then 

 with a long one, and this plan is absolutely necessary when reaching 

 the end of the plank running out from where the bank casting 

 ends. Fortunately fish do not often leave this pool to dash down 

 the rough and broken bit of water at the tail. There are times, 

 however, when all the coaxing and humouring in the world is useless, 

 and then a trip from Pol Verie to the Stone Pool is more often 

 than not but a prelude to a sad parting. Nevertheless, Colonel 

 Murray and others have often successfuUy steered heavy fish 

 through these rapids, to meet in the Stone Pool the fate they had 

 fought so gallantly to avoid. 



Now, if the angler has started from the Disputed, by the time 

 he comes off the plank at Pol Verie he will assuredly be ready 

 for lunch, and the sight of the open door of the hut, with its deal 

 table and Archie M'Donald returning from an adjacent spring with 

 a jug of water, will settle all doubts, and, to put it in the language 

 I once heard used by a touring " 'Arry," " bite, swipe, and pipe " 

 will occupy the next half-hour. Personally, from ten to fifteen 

 minutes is all I allow myself, and for a fishing maniac this is more 

 than enough. 



As the hut is entered, a long, narrow deal table faces the hungry 

 man, on which is carved the outline of a forty-two-pounder caught 

 here on the 20th of July 1879. This is the oldest reminiscence of 

 the hut. The captor's name is not given, but having regard to the 

 date, it probably fell to the rod of Sir John Bennett Lawes or one 

 of his guests. Close to the nose of this fish the points of the compass 



