THE SHIEL OF LOCH SHIEL 233 



surroundings are particularly beautiful. And from this end of the 

 river I shall begin to describe the pools. 



The head of these falls is at the tail end of the 



Sea Pool, 



which extends to about two hundred yards above this point, and is 

 one of the few pools in which there is always some stream. It 

 fishes in medium and high water, and the middle part of it is the 

 best. 



Fish often take just on the brink of the first fall, and can gener- 

 ally be coaxed into the deep part above. Sometimes, however, 

 they will go back over the falls, down to tidal water again — at low 

 tide a difference in level from where he was hooked of fifteen feet — 

 and the following of him gives a run of close on one hundred yards 

 over most difficult ground. Careful handling is needed to prevent 

 being broken in negotiating a fish over these falls, and the satis- 

 faction when he reaches salt water and you feel him stiU on is great. 



This pool is one of the best on the river for sea trout. 



About two hundred yards above the Sea Pool, at the bend of 

 the river, is a short pool, 



St. Columba 



Fish lie in it only when the river is very high — level with the banks. 

 It is, however, always a capital hold for sea trout. 



Above St. Columba there are shallows good for sea trout, that 

 in very high water sometimes hold a fish, and then we come to the 



Road Pool, 



a most likely looking one, deep, and sandy, gravelly banks at the 

 bottom of it. One feels that this pool should never be passed 

 without being fished ; but it is only once or twice in a season that 

 any recompense is received for the time spent on the trial. 



A httle distance farther on [there is another likely looking pool 

 alongside the road, which, in the days when the river was scringed, 

 used to be fished with success by the rod. Since then weeds, which 

 the working of the nets used to clear away, have grown over the 

 bottom, and fish won't now rest in it. 



Continuing on, and at a little over a mile from the mouth of 

 the river, is the 



Captain's Pool, 



about eighty yards long. Fish mostly lie in the middle, but vary 

 their position according to the height of the water : in low and 

 medium keeping to the Dorhn, and in high water to the Ardnamur- 

 chan bank. They don't rest much in it until after the middle of 

 July, and then some do ; but few are taken, for the surface is 

 nearly always as smooth as a pond. There is very little current at 



