CHAPTERLVl 



KANIARD, OWSKAIG, POLLY, AND ULLAPOOL 



These small but pretty streams are hardly of sufficient importance 

 to require a separate chapter for the description of each ; they are 

 also close together, while the whole four belong entirely to the 

 Countess of Cromartie. The Polly is the most northern salmon 

 river of the west coast of Ross-shire ; it goes with the InverpoUy 

 shootings, and drains about twenty square miles of country, in 

 which there are eleven large lochs. The largest — Loch Skinaskink 

 — is famed for the size of its brov/n trout. With an acreage of 

 1638 acres, and with a circuit of over fifteen miles, trout of from 

 12 to 5 lb. have often been taken by trolhng a large phantom, 

 while trout of 3 lb. were quite common weights. Hard fishing, 

 however, has brought about the inevitable result, and a decrease 

 in the number and the weight of the fish has slowly taken place — a 

 natural consequence to be seen in many other lochs from which the 

 stock is continually taken, without any corresponding attempt at 

 replenishment. 



The head of Loch Fewin, which empties into the Kirkaig, and 

 the head of Loch Achyle, which discharges through the Polly, are 

 not half a mile apart, a proximity which has led many of the smaller 

 maps of Scotland to make the mistake of marking a connecting 

 stream between the two lochs. 



The whole of the Polly lochs and river go with the InverpoUy 

 shootings, and are strictly preserved. Sometimes the shooting 

 tenant, if unable to go himself, sublets the lodge with the angling 

 from June up to the 7th of August. At times, also, the InverpoUy 

 tenant has given the tenant of Culag Hotel at Loch Inver leave to send 

 his visitors to fish the InverpoUy lochs, taking in exchange later on 

 a day or two a week on the Kirkaig ; but, of course, all arrange- 

 ments of this sort depend entirely on the wishes of the occupant 

 pro tern. 



On quitting Loch Skinaskink, the PoUy, after flowing through 

 two other lochs, has a winding course of two miles, until it faUs 

 into the sea at Loch PoUy, a branch of the spacious Bay of Enard. 

 A short distance below the loch nearest to the sea there are some 

 falls, above which the river divides into two branches, the larger 

 passing over the faU, while the smaller one runs through a narrow 

 channel with a comparatively easy gradient, to rejoin the main 

 stream beneath the chief fall. 



