THE TUMMEL 



287 



Inner Ballechin, Pitnacree, and Ballechin — all these ten pro- 

 perties are opposite GrandtuUy and share the same pools, each 

 side, as is the custom all down the Tay, taking three days a 

 week. 



As GrandtuUy ends on the south side, the Duke of Atholl comes 

 in ; next is his Easthaugh property, followed by his two others of 

 Kinnaird and Logierait. 



Crossing to the north side and returning up stream, as Ballechin 

 ends there comes the Eastertyre reach, and then the Duke of 

 Atholl follows on, and the glebe claiming a small slice, the Duke's 

 lands continue to the junction of the Tummel ; and now, quitting 

 the Tay for a short tune, a few pages wiU be devoted to this river 

 and its tributary, the Garry. 



" Fast runs the sunlit Tummel, 



Strong from his wilds above, 

 Blue as the ' body of heaven,' 



Shot like the neck of a dove. 

 He is fresh from the moor of Rannoch, 



He has drained Loch Ericht dread. 

 And mirror'd on Carle's water 



Ben-y-Houlach's stately head ; 

 He has mourned round the graves of the Struans, 



Hid in the night of the wood, 

 He glides by the pleasant slope 



Where our old Dunalastair stood. 

 Scheballion has heard him chafing 



Down by his sunless steep, 

 And has watched the child of the mountains 



Deep in his loch asleep. 

 He's awake ! and olt by Bonskeid, 



He has leapt his falls with glee ; 

 He has married the swirling Garry, 



And they hnger in Faskally." 



Thus sang the late Dr. John Brown, the charmmg author of Rab 

 and His Friends. 



The Tummel first takes its name when it flows from Loch 

 Rannoch, which is a big loch of ten miles long, receiving the waters 

 of a great extent of country lying around and to the west of the 

 head of the loch. After a winding run of some ten miles it enters 

 Loch Tummel, also a good-sized piece of water four miles in length, 

 and flowing from it the river runs past a portion of the Faskally 

 property on the right bank with the lands of AUean and Bonskeid 

 on the left, to where the Garry joins in some two hundred yards 

 below the Falls of Tummel. In certain states of water a few fish — 

 very few — ascend these falls, for they are seen above them every 

 season, though rarely caught in a legitimate way, and as those that 

 are poached are naturally not reported, the idea prevails that no 

 fish make their way up. Few people angle for salmon above the 

 falls, and, moreover, the fish that ascend them do not pass up till 

 well on in the season. Still, some are caught each autumn by the 

 rod, and in many cases are called " ferox " by the locals, who fear 



