THE GARRY, ETC. 203 



must pass up the Awe to reach the Orchy in March and April, yet 

 a capture on the Awe during these months is unusual. Probably 

 the fish of the Garry and the Orchy are each bent on reaching their 

 destination, and do not rest more than a few hours in either river, 

 or if they stay longer, they are in no mood to take a fly or any 

 other lure. There is also a great probabdity that these Garry fish 

 run the Ness during the month of January before that river is 

 open to the rod. At any rate, there cannot be the smallest doubt 

 that it is via the Ness and Loch Ness that the Garry fish come, and 

 they are, moreover, distinctly different in shape from the Ness fish. 



The usually accurate Badminton Library falls into a curious 

 error with respect to this river, for in the volume on Salmon and 

 Trout Fishing the reader is told that " the bulk of the fish come 

 into Loch Oich via Loch Lochy, and so into the Garry ! " At 

 page 184 the Badminton volume reads as follows : " Who can 

 account for the fact that when you cannot find, or certainly see, 

 or rise, a fish on the Lochy in early spring, you can take scores on 

 the Garry of beautiful large salmon in prime condition ? 



" The shortest journey to the Garry is through the river Lochy 

 and Loch Lochy, and yet fishermen will tell you that the fish in 

 the Garry come from the East and not from the West coast (which 

 is close by), and come all the way up the River Ness and Loch Ness, 

 double the distance, to the Garry, and yet whilst they are caught 

 there in numbers, not a fish can be seen or got on the Ness. In 

 July and autumn, when sport is fast and furious on the Lochy and 

 Ness, not a fish is to be seen in the Garry." 



A more erroneous statement it is difficult to imagine, for before 

 the making of the Caledonian Canal two miles of solid land divided 

 Loch Lochy from Loch Oich, and at no previous time was there 

 ever any connecting link. When, however, this waterway was 

 constructed, a narrow canal was cut between the two lochs, and it 

 is only by passing through this artificial stretch of nearly stagnant 

 water, in which there are at least two ordinary canal lochs, with 

 gates and sluices, that a fish could get from Loch Lochy to Loch 

 Oich. Of course, fish could be transported from one loch to the 

 other, and I do not say that it is absolutely impossible for a fish to 

 make such a journey on its own account, but it is in the highest 

 degree improbable that any fish has ever done this, and it is 

 absolutely certain that no great quantity do so. 



Nearly the whole of the Upper Garry, Loch Quoich, Loch Garry, 

 and all the Lower Garry belong to Mrs. EUice of Glengarry, and 

 her son. Captain E. C. EUice, is the author of an interesting book 

 about that country, called The Place Names in Glengarry and 

 Glenquoich and their Origin. 



Loch Oich, with part of the river Oich, are also in the same 

 ownership, the remainder of the stream belonging to Lord Lovat. 

 Fish do not ascend the Garry Falls before the end of June, and 

 very few grilse ever appear, for but once in a lifetime passed on 

 the river, and that once many years ago, has old Angus Macdonell 



