JULY 159 



in virtue of their higher organisation and intellectual 

 powers. 



But the wind, is beginning to boom in stronger gusts up 

 the pass ; the sky has stooped to join the mist-skirts on 

 the hills ; already heavy drops are flying, and seeing what 

 a ' kittle ' stream is the Amhuin Aoidh — Hugh's Kiver — 

 it behoves us to push on to Linfad if we would make sure 

 of a few hours' fishing before the coming of the great 

 spate. 



For the greater part of its course this stream is a rapid 

 water, chafing through rocky gorges, battling over gravelly 

 fords, or slipping swiftly among bending meadows; but 

 about three miles above the lodge it slumbers for haK a 

 mile in a deep, canal-like channel. The best pool on 

 the river, this, for holding fish — whether salmon or sea- 

 trout — which make leisurely pause there in their annual 

 journey to the loch, whence the river issues ; albeit a pool 

 like that which was called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, 

 whereof a man must await the troubling of the water 

 before he can derive any profit therefrom. Bravely the 

 breeze buffeted it to-day, and the sky was of the kind 

 preferred by crafty Richard Franck — ' promiscuous and 

 dark, occasioned by smooty and discoloured clouds ' ; the 

 reach lay steel-gray in the green strath ; no Jewish cripple 

 was ever more tremulously keen than I to reach the 

 water's edge. 



With a twelve-foot rod you can cover every place where 

 a fish lies in Amhuin Aoidh ; ^ but the water is as clear as 

 gin, and you must stand well back, which a light fifteen- 

 footer enables you to do easily. There is a good chance 

 of hooking a salmon in Linfad, but nothing of the dignity 

 ' Pronounced Avon M. 



