TROUT-FISHING IN SUTHERLANDSHIRE.

B

EFORE the great exodus of English sportsmen to the moors

in August, their brethren of the rod have migrated northwards in large numbers. From February, indeed, when Loch Tay can be fished and divers early rivers open, a steady influx of salmon-fishers sets in to the Scotch straths, month by month, according to the time when their favourite rivers come into fishing order. These help te maintain during a dull time the great tourist hotels of Perth and Inverness, which hope for a more abundant harvest later in the season. But as a rule the early salmon-fishers do not make a long stay in the country. The cheerless weather which too often prevails in the north during spring, and the numerous floods, when the rivers are "ower drumlie and wunna fush," necessitating much confinement to the house and a large consumption of tobacco, soon wear out the enthusiasm of all but the most devoted fishermen. With June, however, and still more with July, the English fly-fishers begin to flock to Scotland. The spectacle presented by the stations along the railroads of South and Mid Scotland, where every second man on the platforms is equipped with rod and basket, warns them to go further afield. Indeed, the marvel is how a single troutling in these parts survives the combined attacks made upon them, and a stranger does not contemplate the fishermen with an exalted idea of their skill. In the great and watery county of Sutherlandshire, however, are unnumbered lochs and myriads of trout. The merest tiro of the craft need not despair in its Elysian plains of finding excellent sport. As that good man and famous angler Sir H. Wotton was wont to say that he would rather live one May than twenty Decembers, so we would rather fish a fortnight in Sutherlandshire than a month elsewhere, weighty though the assertion be in these days of much work and limited holidays. The north of Scotland offers numberless subsidiary pleasures to the naturalist, the artist, and the man of cultivated mind. If the angler can ever be supposed capable of such high treason to his craft as to be tired of throwing his fly, he can in Sutherlandshire at once turn to many other delightful occu

pations. The late centenarian Canon Beadon was a fisherman until he was eighty-eight years of age. It would not surprise us to be told that he rejuvenated himself summer by summer amidst the mountains of Sutherland.

There are two routes, each with its own attractions, open to those who form part of the annual influx of fishermen to Sutherlandshire. Steamers will take the angler from Glasgow to Loch Inver, through the islands of the west coast of Scotland, among scenes endeared to the last generation by the "Lord of the Isles," and fast being rendered familiar to readers of the present day by Mr. Black's delightful novels. Everyone who is able to appreciate an idle day or two on board ship among congenial companions and prospects of changeful beauty will choose this mode of reaching his favourite lochs. Its only drawback is that somewhat more time is consumed by it, and a bad sailor may find the swell off the Mull of Cantire or that setting into the Minch too much for his inner man's composure. In fine weather, however, the sail down the Clyde, and by the purple shores of Bute and Arran, past Jura into beautiful Loch Linnhe, studded with Scarba, Kerrera, and the Great Garden (Lismohr), to say nothing of the Sound of Mull, with old castles perched on every commanding point, the craggy wastes of Ardnamurchan, and the strange contrast presented by the verdant curve of Armidale Bay in Skye, is a charming prelude to the happiness in store for him in Sutherlandshire. The frowning rocks of Rossshire running up to its dark and mist-capped mountains, and ever beaten with the Atlantic surf, are a fitting introduction to the Laurentian rocks of Sutherlandshire, the oldest in the world. From Loch Inver the angler may choose two or three roads leading inland, each one beset by a bewildering throng of lochs of all sizes, but almost all free, almost all abounding in trout, such as Lochs Veyattie, Fewin, Beannoch, Awe, Assynt, and the like. The alternative route is from Perth by the Highland Railway to Inverness and Lairg, whence access again may be procured to Loch Shin and the chain of lakes leading from it to the Atlantic-Lochs Griam, Merkland, More, and Stack-to another Loch Beannoch, and to the great lochs of the most northern division of Sutherlandshire-Lochs Layghal, Naver, and a multitude more. This route also possesses considerable beauty and interest, leading the angler through the Grampians to the watershed of Scotland, the Pass of Drumnadrochet, by the Cairngorms (like the Grampians, clothed in snow this year in July), into the fertile "laigh of Moray," and so by the sea scenery of the Moray, Cromarty, and Dornoch Firths, to Bonar Bridge. The best

mode of going north is perhaps to take the sea voyage one way and return by the railroad. The little fishing inns scattered here and there through the country, each at the head of its own loch, soon fill with anglers as June passes on. Inchnadamph, Altnageallagoch, Altnaharra, Overscaig, Rhiconnich, and many more offer each its peculiar attractions. Many a lonely lake and unfrequented valley sees "machines" driven along its edge with anglers and their wives seeking the little bay where the boat lies. Gillies, keepers, shepherds, and the sparse population of the province are delighted to view English faces once more; their honest kindly natures expand before the genial greetings of the Sassenachs like sea anemones before the returning tide. Every conveyance is crammed; kitchen chimneys are in full blast; it is emphatically the season in these remote parts of the kingdom, and all because of one fish-the trout.

The general weight of the trout in most of the open lochs of Sutherlandshire may be put down at a third of a pound. Every now and then a fish of three-quarters or even a pound will be taken, and at rare intervals one much bigger. In some of the reserved lochs, such as Lochs Craggie and Dowla, they are much larger, perhaps averaging two or even one to the pound. But an angler would be much mistaken who should estimate the sport likely to be afforded by fish running at three to the pound, with weaklings of the same size in an English stream. These are much more vigorous, as befits their northern ancestry, are dressed in more brilliant colours, and from having another chance for escape, the extreme depth of most Scotch lochs, fight for life with far more activity than many an English fish twice their size. But the above are the dimensions to be expected by fly-fishers. Of course trolling is open to fishermen, and then with the natural bait or with phantom minnows, fish of two, three pounds, or more are not uncommon, while the salmo ferox in such lakes as possess this monster, which owns the jaws of a pike as well as the strength and activity of a trout, may be caught up to 15 or 16 lbs. We say may be caught, but an enthusiast would probably require to troll many weeks before he would luckily take one of such a size. Still, small feroces running even to nine pounds are far from uncommon, and on a dull heavy day the angler should in most lakes be able to secure two or three of these. An occasional salmon, too, may be found in such lochs as communicate with the sea. What Sutherlandshire trout lack in the matter of weight is abundantly compensated by their numbers (sixty, eighty, or even a hundred a day being no unusual take), and by their vigorous resistance. In every “burn” running into the lochs, hundreds of trout the length of

the middle finger may be caught, together with an occasional patriarch of a pound or more, which has chosen a deep pool, and for months remorselessly slaughtered his smaller kith and kin within it. In fact, no better place for catching a large trout can be recommended to anglers than the sullen pool just above the embouchure of such a mountain burn into the loch. It is generally fringed with low scrub and birch-trees, and if the angler wait for a breeze ruffling the waters under this fringe, and then drop a March brown of large size laced with gold tinsel into them, he will not often be disappointed of his prey. All these brown trout, little or big, are alike firm and pinky in colour when they leave the hands of the chef, and once more confront their taker at the breakfast-table.

At that meal mutton and trout, excellent milk and butter, and preserves will make their appearance. Porridge, too, may be had by its admirers; but we notice that those who patronise and cry it up as the best meal on which to take violent exercise, generally eat as much of the other dishes after it as those who are insensible to its attractions. Next ensues a scene of great bustle, gillies and masters, the host and his servants, together with all the hangers-on of the establishment, collect in front of the inn to make preparations for a start. The hall is littered with rods, landing-nets, flasks, reels, fly-books, gaffs, &c. &c. Constant demands are made for whisky and sandwiches to be taken with the different parties for lunch. A " machine" or two, each drawn by a couple of shaggy ponies, draw up for those who are to fish lochs somewhat distant from home. These are rapidly filled with masters and gillies, baskets and rugs (for the air is sure to be keen when returning even in a July evening), and with many a joke and considerable banter, cigars are lit, the "machines" drive off, and those who are to walk to their stations also start with their equipments. Not much can be done from the shores of the lochs. The fish either lie just beyond casting distance, or the breeze only ruffles the central waters of the loch, owing to banks and bushes. The angler, too, is tolerably certain to lose many flies, and the most pertinacious good temper is liable to be ruined by the hooks catching these obstacles. Therefore it is better to employ a gilly to row him, and then, by keeping the head of the boat some thirty yards from the shore and casting towards it, abundance of fish may be taken. It is of little or no use to fish in deep water. But little food can be found there, and the salmo ferox loves to lie in a situation where it shelves into shallow water. It is curious amid the gray scenery, only broken by the bright tints of the wild-flowers, to find the trout of these lochs rising most freely to gay-coloured lures.

No fly, save some of the gorgeously painted insects of the tropics, at all resembles the wonderful creatures which the tackle-makers of Inverness and Dunkeld supply for the capture of Sutherlandshire trout, and we can testify that they are correct in their selection. Sober flies may kill at times, but bright green, red, yellow, and purple bodies laced with gold or silver tinsel, with wings of mallard or still better of teal, are always taken with eagerness. The best way of fishing a Sutherlandshire loch is to troll down it for two or three miles, then to take to the fly-rod, and again to troll on the way home. By this mode on a fortunate day the angler can generally secure three or four large fish and several dozens of smaller trout.

Whenever he feels inclined, the angler can land for a mid-day rest of half-an-hour. A picturesque island may be chosen, or a wooded knoll running into the loch, and here the gilly, having secured the boat, retires to eat his lunch and smoke his pipe apart from his master, who takes his biscuit or sandwich, and considerably lessens the quantity of whisky in his flask. It is singular to find the man who at home seldom or never touches spirits drinking, in this strong air and after vigorous exercise, not merely whisky, but whisky undashed by water. It is the safest plan in any country to adopt the beverage drunk by its inhabitants, and through the north of Scotland there can be no question what this is. It is just as well, before reclining on a tuft of soft heather, to make certain that no adder lurks underneath it, for these reptiles are very common in many parts of the country. We have never heard of a fatal case to man after one of their bites, but the shepherds and gillies give horrifying descriptions of sheep and dogs being attacked by them (the former generally being bitten on the nose, as the fleece elsewhere baffles them), which then speedily turn black and die; but close cross-examination will throw much doubt also on these stories. They are probably survivals of old myths respecting serpents and serpent-worship; indeed, adders are called " serpents" to this day in Sutherlandshire. The mosquitoes may be dreaded with more reason. They are often in hot weather very annoying, and when seconded by the "cleggs" or gadflies, effectually murder repose near the water.

On commencing to fish again it will be found that the trout cease to rise about half-past three or four o'clock in apparently the most groundless manner. Atmospheric conditions most probably would explain the anomaly, but there is nothing perceptible to human senses which can account for it. After half or three-quarters of an hour they once more begin rising vigorously, but by six or half-past they have fallen off again, and the fisherman most probably remem