CHAPTER XXXI 



THE ETIVE 



This is an impetuous mountain stream draining thirty-eight 

 square miles of hill country, rising in the small Loch of Mathair 

 Etive in the Black Mount Forest, about a thousand feet above 

 the sea, and two miles to the north of Kingshouse Inn, close by 

 which it flows, to be shortly joined by its chief tributary, the 

 Coupal, from which point to Dalness House it tumbles and rushes 

 along a rocky bed through a wild, steep glen in the forest, and passes 

 round the foot of the remarkable and well-known Buchaille Etive, 

 with its stony, sugar-loaf summit towering three thousand feet 

 above. On reaching Dalness House it dashes over a sheer fall of 

 fully twenty feet, an effectual bar to the further ascent of fish, as 

 the expense of overcoming such a formidable obstacle would never 

 be repaid by the salmonising of the waters above it. 



From Kingshouse to Dalness is eight miles, while from the 

 falls to the salt water of Loch Etive is another four. The angling 

 of the Fall Pool belongs entirely to Mrs. Stewart of Dalness, but 

 at the end of this deep, long pool Mr. Greaves of Glen Etive comes 

 in. Both proprietors preserve strictly and give no leave to 

 strangers. 



It is somewhat remarkable that this httle Loch Etive, which 

 eventuaUy sends its waters to the Atlantic, is barely a mile from 

 Loch Gaincamhach on Rannoch Moor, whose overflow reaches the 

 German Ocean through the Tay, and therefore if the falls of the 

 Tummel were opened up, the fish of the two coasts would very 

 nearly meet. 



To fish this river to any good purpose, the angler must either 

 be a guest at Dalness or Glen Etive, for it rises and falls with great 

 rapidity and has to be taken exactly at the right moment. It 

 opens on the nth of February, and has the same close times as 

 others that open on that day, although as a matter of fact there are 

 no fish untfl June and July. Having regard to the size of the 

 stream, both salmon and sea trout are occasionally of heavy weights. 

 No wading is required, while a fomteen-foot rod wiU do all the work, 

 and any of the smaU standard patterns will kill — Jock Scot, Thunder 

 and Lightning, and Blue Doctor for choice. Sea trout inchne to a 

 sombre-looking smafl fly with a black body, black hackle, narrow 

 silver twists and wings of the wing of the maUard. 



On several occasions I have sailed up to the river mouth from 



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