XI. EXCURSIONS FROM POOLEWE…

XI. EXCURSIONS FROM POOLEWE

From Poolewe there are several interesting drives to be taken.

1. To Places on the West Side of Loch Ewe.--From Poolewe Inn strike off to the left along the sea-shore. The first house beyond the inn is called Cliff House (Mr J. Mackenzie). Here was formerly the Gairloch manse. A little further, to the left of the road, are the two large holes, full of water (Part I., chap. xx.), which were borings made long ago by Sir George Hay or some of the ironworkers, who projected a canal to connect Loch Maree with the head of Loch Ewe. About half a mile from Poolewe the road forms a sharp angle to the right. This place is called Cuil an Scardain, a very descriptive name, for it means "the corner of the screes." There were formerly houses here. Many spots have Gaelic names indicating either that they were formerly inhabited, or that some particular incidents celebrated by the "seannachaidh" occurred at the places. The little water-mill of Boor for grinding meal is soon reached. It is on the right of the road at the foot of a rocky burn, whose steep descent to the left makes quite a picture as you look up it from the road. The farm of Boor is now passed. The farmhouse (Mr John Mackenzie) is on the hill side to the left. A little hazel scrub, containing a few choice wildflowers, is on the same side of the road. It was in this direction that the last of the chiefs of the Macbeaths fled from the two Kintail men (Part I., chap. vi.). The name "Boor" is supposed by some to have originated in this incident; others say the name means the "roaring" of a stag. For some distance beyond there is nothing requiring notice except Sgeir Bhoora (the rock of Boor), a small island in Loch Ewe. The small headland jutting into Loch Ewe at the north end of Boor farm is called on the Dutch map of 1662 Ruymakilvandrich, i.e. Rudha Mac Ghille Aindreas, or "the point of the son of St Andrew's servant or disciple;" the story of this place is now lost. The road skirts Loch Ewe, which widens somewhat abruptly beyond the opposite point called Fiaclachan, on the Inverewe side of the loch. The Isle of Ewe (with its satellites Sgeir an Fharaig and Sgeir a Bhuic) comes into sight, and far away to the north are gradually expanding views of range beyond range of the mountains of Sutherland. Naast is the first village we pass. Its Norse name is said to mean a castle or fort; a stronghold anciently stood on the rocky headland forming the tiny bay below the township, where a picturesque group of fishing boats is generally to be seen lying on the beach. The headland is called Dun Naast (see pages 61 and 98). Another mile brings us to the commencement of Inverasdale, a straggling collection of hamlets spread over a tract a mile and a half in length and half a mile or more in width. Inverasdale is entered by a narrow bridge over the burn called the Great Burn (though it is but small), which joins the salt water at a picturesque little creek often occupied by herring boats out of work. On the other side of the creek is a tall house, formerly the school. The large room in the building is now used as a place of worship by the members of the Free Church. The section of Inverasdale on the hillside to the left is called Brae; the portion through which the road first passes is called Midtown, or Middletown, or Ballymeon. Further on, the allotments, or rather crofts, cover a wide space between the road and Loch Ewe, with thoroughly Highland dwellings dotted here and there. This section is called Coast. The substantial board school, with the teacher's house adjoining, is to the left of the road nearly at the hill top. Near the school some pans of bog iron may be noticed. Descending the hill the hamlet of Faidhir Mor, or Firemore, which is the furthest north portion of Inverasdale, lies to the right. On a promontory here are the signals indicating where the telegraph cable begins its submarine course to Stornoway, the capital of the Lews. The range of hills which having commenced with Craig Tollie on Loch Maree was continued behind Poolewe by Cliff Hill, and has been prolonged by a series of rocky eminences, varying from three to six hundred feet in height, along the side of the road as far as Inverasdale, has now receded some distance away to the left, or rather the road has deviated considerably to the right. That range of hills runs forward in an almost straight line until it reaches the Minch, where it is broken off and forms the rocky headland called Rudha Reidh, or Seann Rudha, mentioned in the last chapter. On the east side of the highest top of this range is the place called Bac an Leth-choin, and a moorland ridge between the road and the range of hills is the Druim cam Neill; both are mentioned in the story of the death of Neil Macleod told in Part I., chap. xii. Crossing the burn beyond Firemore the road skirts a beautiful sandy bay, and shortly arrives at Meallan na Ghamhna, or Stirkhill. There are some caves frequented by rock pigeon, on the sea margin of the hill. It was here that a cave full of weapons, which (both cave and weapons) had been concealed long ago by means of the "sian," were seen by some women gathering lichens not many years since (Part II., chap. xiv.). Two miles away, to the left, the woods of Loch a Druing may be noticed clothing a hollow on the side of the range of hills beyond the Bac an Leth-choin. It was in these woods that the fairy called the Gille Dubh lived (Part II., chap. xiii.); and behind the top of the ridge is the Fedan Mor, where Duncan MacRae hid the keg of gold (Part II., chap. xiv.). The road is not passable for carriages beyond Stirkhill, but a walk forward to Cove is strongly recommended. The primitive out-of-the-world character of the place and its inhabitants, the fine cave, the natural arch (see illustration), and the views from and general features of the coast, will well repay the pedestrian who spends an hour in the following stroll. The village of Cove begins very soon after you leave your carriage. The road is a cart road, until, on the left, a house is reached with a wing (formerly used as a school) at right angles to its main portion. Open the door of this wing and you see a curious room, which is a place of worship with its little pulpit, and is also a store-house of all manner of fishing implements and dresses. The house is the home of the catechist attached to the Aultbea and Poolewe Free churches. The picturesque cove or harbour is to the right of the path, and when the many coloured boats are laid up on its shore it forms a charming picture. Go forward by the narrowing path, and ask some of the civil inhabitants to show you the cave where they worship. It is a romantic place with its old desk, and stones and pieces of wood arranged for seats, the nest of a mavis or thrush on a ledge of rock, and the narrow entrance veiled by a tangle of woodbine and eglantine. The sea can almost wash into this cave. A few yards from it is a hole which opens into another and smaller cave; there is a larger cave in the rocky headland nearer the harbour. A brief further stroll on the top of the low cliff reveals the curious detached rock standing out from the shore with its natural arch (see illustration), resembling similar arches at Torquay, Freshwater (Isle of Wight), and other places. The return from Cove is by the same route, or a boat may be hired to Poolewe.

2. Excursion to Fionn Loch.--This excursion (so far as beyond Inveran) can only be made by special permission of Mr O. H. Mackenzie of Inverewe, and that certainly cannot be obtained after July. Cross the bridge at Poolewe and turn to the right. The road follows the course of the River Ewe pretty closely. There is a picturesque little crag on the left called Craig an Fhithich, or "the raven's crag." The flat peat bog a little further on is called the "Shore." Between the road and the river, on the right, is the remains of the iron furnace called the Red Smiddy (Part I., chap. xx.). The next hill we pass, on the left, is called Craig Bhan. It was on this and other hills to the left and further on that Donald Maclean saw the visions of soldiers in red uniforms described in Part II., chap. xv. Observe the beautiful peeps of the river Ewe and Loch Maree, and the wooded hills often called the Trossachs of Loch Maree. The road soon enters the Inveran woods, and after passing the Inveran farmhouse, where there is a fine view of the lower end of Loch Maree, arrives at a wooden bridge over the Inveran river or burn, the outlet from Loch Kernsary. To this point the road has been on the property of Sir Kenneth Mackenzie, but now enters that of Mr Osgood H. Mackenzie. The gate at this bridge is kept locked. A small loch (Loch an Doire Garbh), with abundant water lilies, is soon passed on the right, and then Loch Kernsary is reached, a fine sheet of water about a mile long. There is an artificial island, or crannog, with a grove of trees on it, now nearly destroyed by the rooks that nest here. Turning to the right the farm of Kernsary, with its sheltered fields and smiling woods, is reached. The small river is spanned by a frail foot-bridge, below which is the ford for carts and carriages. The cottage and byre on the hillside to the left are the place called Innis a Bhaird. A house was built here in the first half of the eighteenth century by the bard named Cross, who was called "Bard Sasunnach" (Part I., chap. xiv.). From Kernsary the almost Alpine road constructed by Mr O. H. Mackenzie about 1875 gradually ascends to a height of 600 feet above the sea level. Both at Kernsary and for a mile further, near the road, are the remains of cottages or shieling bothies. The patches which were formerly cultivated are now mostly overgrown with bracken. The varied colouring of the landscape, especially to the right of the road, is wonderfully fine at any time of the year. At a distance of about six miles from Poolewe the road terminates at Fionn Loch, which is admirably described by Mr Jolly in chapter xiv. of this Part. This fine loch is 550 feet above the sea level, and contains some picturesque little islands, mostly wooded. Some of them are mentioned in Part III., chap. vi. The chief attraction of Fionn Loch consists in the amphitheatre of mountains round the head of the loch. Beinn Lair, broken off towards the north-east in a series of remarkable precipices, is the central object (see illustration, page 54); whilst the Maighdean to the east, and Meall Mheannidh to the west, form noble guards on those flanks. The horns of the crescent are completed by Beinn a Chaisgean on the east of Fionn Loch and Beinn Aridh Charr on the west, the latter presenting a series of magnificent escarpments. The south end of Beinn a Chaisgean has two fine spurs, Scuir a Laocainn and Scuir na Feart. Below Beinn Lair, and slightly to the east, are the lower eminences of Craig an Dubh Loch (a spur of Beinn Tarsuinn Chaol), streaked by veins of pegmatite, showing white even at some miles distance. Return to Poolewe by the same route. This excursion may be made also from the Gairloch Hotel, but in any case special permission must be obtained for it beforehand.

Other excursions by road from Poolewe Inn may be made in either direction towards Gairloch or Aultbea, and the excursions from Aultbea described in the next chapter may be accomplished from Poolewe.

Of water expeditions there are the voyage on Loch Maree (Part. IV., chap. xiii.), which can readily be done from Poolewe Inn, and boating expeditions on Loch Ewe either for purposes of angling or exploration.

Of walks and strolls there are many. Rambles on the west shore of Loch Ewe, or about the township of Londubh, or to Inveran farm and bridge, or to the splendid points of view of Loch Maree above Tollie, are all replete with interest. The old track continued from Tollie pier along the south-west side of Loch Maree is well worth following for a mile or more. Expeditions for angling purposes to any lochs which are open to those staying at Poolewe Inn furnish additional walks. There is a walk from Poolewe Inn to Craig Bhan which I particularly recommend. Cross Poolewe bridge; turn to the right, and follow the Inveran road (as if you were going to Fionn Loch). It is about a mile to the first small detached strip of natural birch wood just opposite the house (on the other side of the river) furthest away from Poolewe. Craig Bhan is the low hill that rises close above the road on the side you are on. Near the top, about one hundred and fifty yards from the road, you will find on the one hand a magnificent view of Loch Maree, and in the other direction of Loch Ewe. I know no finer point of view in the district. One of the brochs, or Pictish round houses (Part I., chap. xxi.), is to be seen on Craig Bhan.

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XII. EXCURSIONS FROM AULTBEA

Three drives are recommended to be taken from Aultbea.

1. To Mellon Charles.--After leaving Aultbea Inn the road crosses the burn, which gives its name to the place, and after passing the post-office, and further on the Free church and its manse, reaches Aird House, on the promontory which forms the bay and is called Aird Point. The tiny hamlet below Aird is called Cuilchonich. Further on the village of Buaile na luib is reached, with its board school. The road now becomes rough, and the rest of the journey may perhaps be better accomplished on foot. The first village after leaving Buaile na luib is called Ormiscaig, and then the township of Mellon Charles is entered, with its sandy beach. It is an interesting Highland place, and, like Cove on the opposite side of Loch Ewe, gives one the idea of being near the end of the world. There are fairy stories connected with this neighbourhood (see Part II., chap. xiii.). Above the village rises Craig an Fhithich Mhor, or "the great raven's crag," 395 feet in height. The rocky coast on either side of Mellon Charles contains some fine caves inhabited by blue-rock pigeons. This excursion may perhaps be better made on foot.

2. To Mellon Udrigil.--Take the road leading north-east from Aultbea. On the left is Tighnafaolinn, a straggling township on the hillside. On the right, after crossing the burn, is the hamlet of Badfearn. The road ascends for about a mile and a half. On both sides are rough moorland, with moraines of ancient glaciers. Soon after passing the brow of the hill the road descends to Laide House, a small but neat dwelling, with a few trees about it, noticeable more for their present rarity in this part of the country than for any merits of their own. The straggling village of Laide, or more fully the Laide of Udrigil, is now entered. The first building, on the left, was used as a place of worship some few years ago, but has been lately unroofed. A little distance from the road, to the right, is the board school. At the merchant's shop turn to the left, leaving the ruin of the ancient chapel to the right below. The road is rather rough, but quite passable. For about a mile it runs along the top of low cliffs; the picturesque salmon station of Mr Hogarth, of Aberdeen, is seen on a small promontory. The curious red cliffs (the only trias hereabouts, Part III., chap. ix.), the picturesque ridges of rock jutting into the sea, and the salmon station itself, are well worth an exploration on foot. The road descends as it passes round the base of the hill called Meallan Udrigil (298 feet), and then ascends, passing Udrigil House, a little way above which is the hamlet of Achagarve. The road now strikes somewhat inland, behind the hill called Meall nam Meallan (478 feet). On the left is the Loch of the Beast, the haunt of the celebrated water-kelpie (Part II., chap. xiii.). A mile further, through a narrow pass, we enter the little village of Mellon Udrigil, with its board school, which, though small, is sufficient for the place. An examination of the village, and a stroll on the sands, will be found interesting. Meall nam Meallan forms a series of fine cliffs along the coast to the south of Mellon Udrigil. During the whole of the drive from Laide there have been magnificent views of the hills and islands around and within the bay of Gruinard. On a fine day, at any time of the year, these views are enchanting. It was from Mellon Udrigil that the vision of the great fleet, with boats manned by red-jackets, was seen (Part II., chap. xv.). The bay of Gruinard, or Loch Gruinard, is described in a separate chapter by Mr Jolly.

3. To Second Coast and intermediate places.--The road to Laide is the same as in the last drive, but instead of turning off to the left at the merchant's, keep straight on in an easterly direction. The scenery and surroundings are described in Mr Jolly's chapter on Loch Gruinard (see page 355). The ruined church or chapel of Sand (Part I., chap. xxi.), standing in a crowded graveyard, is well seen to the left, and is worth a visit. In my memory there were the remains of a mullion and tracery in the little window in the eastern gable. This little church, called the chapel of Sand, is said to have been one of the earliest Christian churches on the west coast (see illustration, page 70). The straggling collection of cottages called Sand adjoins Laide; here, as the name implies, there is a fine stretch of sandy beach, beyond which a wonderfully diversified rocky shore extends. A little beyond Sand, in a cove on the sea-shore close below the road, and accessible from it by a winding footpath, are two caves and some curious detached rocks. One rock is a sort of rugged pyramid, and another resembles a sphinx (see illustration). This latter is particularly remarkable, and is overgrown with beautiful lichens. The larger cave is used for public worship, and the small one as a dwelling. The first hamlet or village after Sand is called First Coast, and the other, further on, is Second Coast. The Gaelic name of the former is "Bad an t' Sluig," or "the clump of the gullet;" and of the latter, "An t' Eirthire Donn," or "the brown side or edge." The word "eirthire" is here spelt according to the local manner; it is in other parts of the Highlands spelt "oirthire," which is said to be more correct.

The villages of First and Second Coast differ from most of those in the parish of Gairloch in having the habitations all together, instead of being scattered in their respective crofts or allotments, as is the usual arrangement. This is due to the "run-rig" system of cultivation having been retained here to a comparatively recent date (Part II., chap. viii.).

Second Coast is bounded by a considerable burn, which joins the sea in the bay below the village, sometimes called Mill bay, because of the mill which formerly stood at the foot of the burn. Proceeding by a long ascent the summit of Cadha Beag is at last attained, with a most lovely view of the horseshoe bay of Fisherfield. At the foot of the steep road down Cadha Beag is a bridge over the Little Gruinard river, which flows out of Fionn Loch, and is the northern boundary of the parish of Gairloch. Here, on the Gairloch side of the river, is a black bothy, which is a licensed house, kept by one William Gunn, the humorous father of a numerous family. The farm, with arable land on both sides of the river, is called Little Gruinard.

The continuation of this drive to the Meikle Gruinard river is well worth taking; a picturesque burn is crossed half-way between the two rivers, and the horses may perhaps be baited at the Fisherfield farmhouse. This road may be used as an exit from Gairloch (Part IV., chap. ii.).

The return journey to Aultbea is by the same route. All the comparatively low ground of the Greenstone Point is called the "Laigh of Loch Broom," i.e. low ground of Loch Broom. It is curious that this part of Gairloch parish should be spoken of as if it were part of the adjoining barony of Loch Broom. In former days Gairloch and Loch Broom were considered to form one district, and this may have originated the confusion perpetuated in this name. "Laigh" is a Scotch, not a Gaelic, word.

Excursions by water from Aultbea are mostly what can be made by boat on Loch Ewe, and may be either for the purpose of sea-fishing, which is very good, or with the object of exploring the rocky headlands and numerous caves at the north end of Isle Ewe or on the mainland beyond Mellon Charles. There is a fine sandy bay, with an out-of-the-world little village called Slaggan, where the great bard of Slaggan (Part II., chap. xxi.) had his abode, and this may be made the subject of a boating excursion. In fine weather a sail on the wide bay of Gruinard will reveal magnificent views of the mountainous coast round its shores, and further north and east.

For walks I can recommend either shore of the Greenstone Point. Mr Forbes, at the inn, will suggest pedestrian rambles, as well as make arrangements for boats on sea and on fresh-water lochs.

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XIII. EXCURSION BY STEAMER ON LOCH MAREE

The steamer on Loch Maree affords a means of viewing the beauties of this queen of Highland lochs in a thorough and luxurious way.

The route from the Gairloch Hotel past Loch Tollie to the junction with the Tollie road is described in chap. vi. of this Part. Proceeding down the estate road past Tollie farm, the tourist will be delighted with the views of Loch Maree and Beinn Aridh Charr, and will soon arrive at Tollie pier in the north-western corner of the loch, where trees and rocks mingle in lovely confusion beneath rugged grey cliffs.

Loch Maree is a magnificent sheet of water, rather over twelve miles in length. Pennant in his "Tour" (Appendix B) says it is eighteen miles long, and this error has been repeated in the New Statistical Account (Appendix E), and in most of the guide-books. The Old Statistical Account (Appendix C) gave the correct length, which can now be attested by any one who will take the trouble to refer to the Ordnance Survey.

Pennant described the scenery of the loch as "making a most beautiful appearance." Dr Arthur Mitchell, adopting the opinion expressed in Anderson's excellent guide, characterises the scenery as "utterly savage and terrific," though he admits that the islands make the loch "an exquisite picture of calm beauty."

Thus doctors disagree! Without claiming to have anything new to say on the question, I must express the opinion, which I share with many others, that the scenery of Loch Maree is not surpassed in the United Kingdom for both wild and gentle beauty.

Perhaps its leading characteristic is the frequent contrasts it exhibits between barren, often precipitous, rocks and mountains on the one hand, and calm lochs, smiling woods, or richly-coloured moors on the other. The unconscious, or unanalysed, impressions of these contrasts produce the most pleasing effects on the spectator's mind and feelings.

The Rev. Mr Small refers to the charms of contrast, exemplified in the scenery of Loch Maree, thus:--

"In rugged grandeur by the placid lake, Rise the bold mountain cliffs, sublimely rude; A pleasing contrast, each with each, they make, And when in such harmonious union viewed, Each with more powerful charms appears imbued. Even thus it is, methinks, with mingling hearts, Though different far in nature and in mood, A blessed influence each to each imparts, Which softens and subdues, yet weakens not, nor thwarts."

The derivation of the name Maree from St Maelrubha is discussed and conclusively established by Dr Mitchell (Part II., chap. xi.). Other references to the loch incidentally occur in several parts of this book.

At Tollie pier (erected 1883) we step on board the little steamer, and commence the tour of the loch. It will be more convenient to describe the left or north-east shore on our way up the loch, and the other side on the return voyage. As the steamer leaves Tollie pier the Fox Point (Gallicé, Rudha mhadaidh ruaidh) is seen on the left. It is a low and small promontory, terminating in grey-white rocks, deriving its name from some story of a fox closely pursued by dogs taking to the water here, or from some fox of unusual size being killed at the place.

Observe the extreme clearness of the water of Loch Maree. Owing to the rocky and gravelly nature of the bed and shores of the loch, its waters never acquire that dark peaty tinge which characterises the water of Loch Katrine. The Fox Point has long been the resort of persons suffering from various ailments, who have come to drink of the marvellously pure water of the loch, which is, or was, believed to possess valuable health-restoring qualities (Part II., chap. xiii.). The traveller casually tasting Loch Maree water, especially in the summer when it is slightly warmed by the sun, may be disappointed with its flavour, or rather want of flavour, and may think it lacking in freshness. Remember that the fresh sparkle of much spring water, so agreeable to the palate, is due to a certain amount of mineral or other impurity.

Behind, or to the north of, the Fox Point the River Ewe leaves Loch Maree. Here are Inveran House and Inveran farm (Miss Maclennan), situated on the estate of Sir Kenneth S. Mackenzie, Bart. of Gairloch, to whom both sides of the River Ewe and, as we shall see, most of the shores of Loch Maree belong, as well as all its islands and the sole right to the salmon and sea-trout fishings, not only of the loch but also of the river and contiguous sea.

This end of Loch Maree has its Ossianic legend (Part I., chap. i.). "The sweetheart's stepping-stones" are said to have been placed in their present position in the water near the Fox Point by Fingal himself; they render the navigation difficult to those ignorant of their localities.

From the Fox Point to a burn a mile further up, the estate of Mr Osgood H. Mackenzie abuts on the loch; then commences the property of Mrs Liot Bankes. The scrubby wood on the hill side sloping to the loch is called An Fhridh dhorch, or "the dark forest." The sheep have been removed from this ground, so the wood here will now have a chance of growing. As the steamer emerges from the comparatively narrow part of Loch Maree the new mansion-house of Ardlair (Mrs Liot Bankes) comes in view, situated in natural pleasure grounds of peculiar beauty. The charms of this place, embracing sloping lawns, shady glades, dense thickets, graceful trees, masses of grey rock, and a shingly beach, edged by a belt of feathery wood, the whole reposing at the foot of magnificent precipices, seem to constitute a sort of garden of the Hesperides, and fully justify the title bestowed on the spot by a Scotch poet, who truly called it "the sweet Ardlair." The name Ardlair signifies "the mare's height." It is derived from a stone, rather like a horse's head, which stands in the loch a few yards to the south of the pier below the house.

A little past the cultivated land, to the east of the house of Ardlair, is the "Cave of the king's son" (Part I., chap. iv.); near it is the stone still called the "Minister's stone" (see illustration, page 81), where tradition has it that the Rev. Farquhar MacRae (Appendix A) used to preach.

Beyond the woods of Ardlair may be seen a large boulder on the beach, called Clach a Mhail, or "the stone of rent or tribute" (see illustration), at which the proprietor of the Letterewe estate used to gather his rents, and where a whisky market used to be held. A small cave a little above, called Uamh a Mhail (see illustration), was used by the proprietor if the weather were too stormy for his business to be conducted at the stone. Further on is a long bluish-looking point called Rudha Chailleach, or "the old woman's (or witch's) point," where it is supposed women accused of witchcraft used to be ducked, or more probably drowned.

On the side of Beinn Aridh Charr, about half way up above Rudha Chailleach, is a conspicuous mass of quartz, called the "White horse." Its shape justifies the name.

Our notes on the islands, among which the steamer passes when opposite Rudha Chailleach, shall be deferred until the return journey.

An enormous rock, or rather lump of rocks, on the southern shoulder of Beinn Aridh Charr rises (just beyond Rudha Chailleach) to the height of 1000 feet. It consists of a number of large rounded masses of stone descending sheer into the waters of the loch, and is called Craig Thairbh, or the "Bull Rock," from a detached stone in the water at the base of the rock supposed to resemble in shape a bull. After passing the Bull Rock the shores of the loch are more or less wooded for a distance of some four or five miles.

On a wooded knoll opposite Isle Maree is an artificial cave, called Uamh an Oir, or "the cave of gold," about forty yards from the margin of the loch. It is an old excavation, made by searchers for the precious metal, which is said to have been found there but in unremunerative quantity. Dr Cochran-Patrick, in his "Early Records relating to Mining in Scotland," gives many interesting facts on the subject of gold mining. Gilbert de Moravia is said to have discovered gold at Durness in Sutherland in 1245. The Scottish Parliament granted to the Crown in 1424 all the gold mines in Scotland. Gold mines were commenced on Crawford Moor during the reign of James IV., about 1511. During the minority of James VI. Cornelius de Vois, a Dutchman, obtained in 1567 a license from the Regent Murray to work gold and silver for nineteen years in any part of Scotland. Cornelius de Vois had several partners who held shares in the adventure. The gold is said to have been found by them principally in the glens and valleys. This "cave of gold" may have been made by them. Many later attempts were made to find gold as well as silver. There is nothing whatever to shew when the search which resulted in the formation of the "cave of gold" took place. According to the New Statistical Account (Appendix E), this excavation was made by some one seeking a vein of silver, and several old people now living say the same, but the name "cave of gold" seems to connect it with the more precious metal.

A rounded mountain to the east of Beinn Aridh Charr, called Meall Mheannidh, is seen above the craggy eminences of Letterewe; and just beyond it Beinn Lair rises in a flattish undulating form, with one small point shewing to the summit. This hill is as it were broken off towards the north in a series of remarkably fine precipices, not discernible from this side (see illustration, page 54). At the back of Beinn Lair are the Claonadh, or "slopes," mentioned in the story of the "Gillie Buidhe" (Part I., chap. xiv.).

The woods of Letterewe begin about half way up the loch. At the commencement of the policies may be noticed the mouth of a canal, and, on the hillside above, the track of a tramway in connection with it. These were constructed by the late proprietor for the purpose of bringing limestone from an extensive and picturesque quarry further up. The quarry is now disused.

To the east of the tramway track notice a fine cascade. Letterewe House (Mr C. Perkins) is an old mansion of the Mackenzies of Letterewe, and is now the property of Mrs Liot Bankes, whose estate extends from the burn (already mentioned) between the Fox Point and Ardlair up to another burn on the west side of Slioch.

A mile beyond Letterewe House the Furnace burn falls into Loch Maree. The hamlet of Furnace takes its name from the iron-smelting furnace (Part I., chap. xx.) established here by Sir George Hay in or about 1607.

The hamlets or places from Letterewe to the head of Loch Maree are in the following order:--Furnace, Innis (or Inch) Ghlas, Coppachy, Regoilachy, and Smiorsair. Above them rises the lordly height of Slioch,--not Beinn Slioch, if you please,--whose name signifies a spear-head; the conical shape of the mountain, as seen from Talladale and Slatadale, resembles the form of the rather thick head of an ancient spear or lance, and still more closely that of an ancient flint arrow-head.

Slioch loses this conical form as the steamer approaches the mountain; it now assumes the appearance of a vast wall, furrowed and grooved by the natural agencies of ten thousand generations. The rills and burns which trickle down its steep sides become in wet weather foaming cataracts. The upper part of the mountain is fluted by deep weather-worn channels, thus forming the range of grand summits that nobly cap this chief feature of Loch Maree. Whilst Beinn Aridh Charr is remarkable for its graceful contour, Slioch stands pre-eminent for its barren wildness and grandeur.

At the foot of the Fasagh burn, which flows into Loch Maree to the east of Slioch, are, on the one side (at some little distance), the old burial-ground called the Cladh nan Sasunnach, or "English graveyard" (Part I., chap. xviii.); and, on the other (the east side of the burn), the remains of ancient ironworks, where large quantities of slag may still be seen (Part I., chap. xx.).

From the head of the loch, which the steamer is now nearing, stretches away to the south-east the partly cultivated strath of Kenlochewe, with the farm of Tagan in the foreground. On the left of the strath, towards the north-east, is a spur of Beinn a Mhuinidh, called the Bonaid Donn, with its waterfall, which, during or immediately after heavy rains, is a fine cascade of the mare's-tail type (Part III., chap. i.). On the south-west side of the strath is Meall a Ghuibhais; and exactly below it, near the head of the loch, the steamer pulls up at the pier on a shingly beach--a "silver strand"--which forms the promontory generally known as Ru Nohar, or "the giant's point." The full spelling of the Gaelic name is "Rudha an Fhomhair" (see "Glossary"). The name of the giant after whom this point is called is not recorded. Can he and his fellows have been buried in the large graves in the Cladh nan Sasunnach?

After a ramble on shore, where many a pleasant nook amid woods and rocks may be found by the roadside suitable for a brief pic-nic (including the consumption of the lunch which the thoughtful voyageur will have provided before starting), we again embark on the steamer for

THE RETURN VOYAGE.

Our notes will now describe the right or south-west side of the loch, and also the islands which add so much to the beauty and romance of Loch Maree.

Observe, as the Mabel gets under way, the slopes and undercliffs of Meall a Ghuibhais, clothed with extremely beautiful woods. They consist for the most part of birch and pine raised by nature, and therefore more picturesque than if planted by man. The oak, the ash, the rowan, the sallow, the hazel, and the quivering aspen, are mingled with the firs and birches, and are all indigenous. Black game and roe-deer abound in these woods, and may often be observed near the margin of the loch. Above the woods are rocky heights; in one place a yellow scar is noticeable, where a landslip occurred many years ago, illustrating the effect of water and frost in disintegrating the hardest rocks.

The woods of Glas Leitire, as this fragment of the old forest is named, extend along some two miles of our return route. As they become thinner, individual trees display their characteristic shapes more freely (see Her Majesty Queen Victoria's remark about these trees quoted in Part IV., chap. iv.).

The county road towards Gairloch, also described in that chapter, runs along the side of the loch we are now noticing. It may be seen here and there winding through the trees, or surmounting some rocky point on the edge of the loch.

After passing the Glas Leitire woods, Glen Grudidh opens out; the transition from the lovely woods to this wild lonely glen is indeed a transformation scene! The view looking up Glen Grudidh is one of the finest in the country; the herbage assumes, particularly in autumn, a ruddy golden hue, contrasting wonderfully with the blue-grey boulders scattered upon it, and the steep blue peak of Ruadh Stac--the highest summit in Gairloch parish--and of Liathgach which form the background.

Further on, at a distance of five miles from the head of the loch, is Grudidh Island (Eilean Grudidh), in a small bay renowned for its sea-trout fishing, and where now and then a salmon is hooked. This interesting little island (Part I., chap, xxi.) was originally a stronghold of the MacBeaths, and was afterwards held by the Macleods (Part I., chap. xii.).

Rounding a promontory, called Aird na h' Eigheamh, or "the calling point," which considerably narrows the loch, we come in sight of the main body of the islands. They are said to be twenty-four in number, but no one can accurately number them. When the loch is high from recent rains many parts become detached from the larger islands, which when it lowers again are reunited. The principal islands are Isle Maree, Eilean Suainne ("the everlasting island"), Eilean Dubh na Sroine ("the black isle of the nose or promontory"), Garbh Eilean ("the rough isle"), and Eilean Ruaridh Mor ("the big island of Rory"), with its pendicle Eilean Ruaridh Beag. Another considerable island is called "the planted island." These islands are part of the Gairloch estate of Sir Kenneth Mackenzie; they are the resort of red deer, which swim across from the mainland; and of black game, sea-gulls, and wild fowl, as well as occasionally of roe-deer. In a hard winter wild swans repair to Loch Maree (which is never frozen over), and frequent the islands. A specimen may be seen in the Loch Maree Hotel. Wild geese (the grey lag goose), wild ducks, mergansers, goosanders, black-throated divers, and countless sea-gulls, visit the islands during May and the following months for the purpose of nesting and rearing their young. The sea-gulls are of four kinds, viz., the great black-backed gull (two or three pairs), the lesser black-backed gull (in great numbers), the herring gull (very few), and the common or winter gull (a few pairs).

The islands are for the most part beautifully wooded,--some of the trees being the remains of the ancient forest, which their insular position protected from the axe of the ironworkers; others self-sown in recent years; and others again planted by the lairds of Gairloch, to whom all the islands have for four centuries belonged. It is pleasant to notice young trees springing up along the north-east shore of the loch, no doubt the result of seed blown from the islands.

Isle Maree is the best known and most interesting of the islands (Part I., chap. ii.; and Part II., chaps. xi. and xii.).

The following verses by Mr James G. Whittier, the American poet, though not quite exact in descriptive details, refer so touchingly to the holy well of Isle Maree (see page 151 et seq.) that I must quote them here:--

"Calm on the breast of Loch Maree A little isle reposes; A shadow woven of the oak And willow o'er it closes.

Within a Druid's mound is seen, Set round with stony warders, A fountain, gushing through the turf, Flows o'er its grassy borders.

And whoso bathes therein his brow, With care or madness burning, Feels once again his healthful thought And sense of peace returning.

O restless heart and fevered brain, Unquiet and unstable, That holy well of Loch Maree Is more than idle fable!

Life's changes vex, its discords stun, Its glaring sunshine blindeth, And blest is he who on his way That fount of healing findeth!

The shadows of a humbled will And contrite heart are o'er it; Go read its legend--'Trust in God'-- On Faith's white stones before it."

Eilean Suainne is the largest of the islands. It is nearly a mile long. Within it is a small loch, with two small islands, on one of which is a large fir tree. Beneath this tree the fairies used to assemble (Part II., chap. xiii.), and in its branches an osprey used to build its nest. Another osprey built on a headland of this island (Part III., chap. vi.). There are traces of the remains of the residence of Alastair Breac, laird of Gairloch, and of some of the older chiefs of the Mackenzies, on this island, as well as of bothies where illicit distillation used to be carried on.

Eilean Ruaridh Mor is called after a celebrated chief of the Macleods. On this island, as well as on Garbh Eilean and Eilean Suainne, the illicit distillation of whisky was extensively conducted in the early part of the nineteenth century.

To the west of Eilean Ruaridh Mor is the small island known as Eilean Ruaridh Beag (or "the little island of Rorie"), formerly the residence of Ruaridh M'Leod, and subsequently of John Roy Mackenzie (Part I., chap. xxi.).

The steamer passes between Eilean Suainne and the mainland to the south of it, and soon reaches the Loch Maree Hotel (described in chap. iv. of this Part).

There is a fine view from the steamer, looking up the glen down which the Talladale river flows. To the right is the eastern shoulder of Beinn an Eoin. The mountain further back, and some distance to the right, is Bathais (or Bus) Bheinn. It is better seen from further down the loch.

After a brief call at Talladale the steamer proceeds in a northerly direction. For a mile or so the Talladale woods continue alongside, and then comes the Garavaig water, where the Slatadale farm begins. About three hundred yards from the loch may be seen through the trees the Victoria Falls (Part III., chap. i.). Close to the loch, at this point, are remains of iron-smelting (Part I., chap. xx.).

The Slatadale farm-buildings are a quarter of a mile further on. Above this farm the road to Gairloch is seen climbing the hill, but taking advantage of a depression.

The steamer now passes between Garbh Eilean, on the right, and Eilean Ruaridh Mor, on the left. Notice the fine views of Slioch.

Beyond Slatadale, i.e. to the west and north-west of the Mabel's course, not a dwelling of man is to be seen, except a shepherd's cottage (now uninhabited) at a place called Doire. The old road, which was formerly the main road to Poolewe, may be traced here and there, until it disappears behind the range of Craig Tollie.

A large bay now opens out, with a small wooded island; it is called Ob Choir 'I, i.e. "the bay of the island corrie." This name is Anglicised into the "bay of Corree." Here, in the summer of 1868, I was fishing with a friend, who succeeded, after a struggle extending to forty minutes, in landing a magnificent yellow trout of twenty-one lbs. (Part IV., chap. xvii.).

Leaving Corree bay well to the left, we reach the point called Rudha aird an anail, or "the high point of breathing," this being a favourite spot for a few minutes' breathing-time when rowing up or down the loch. Observe how the rocks are rounded by ancient glacial action.

From this point the first spur of the range of rocky hills called Craig Tollie begins to rise. A quarter of a mile further on is a rugged cliff, with a precipitous face, 300 feet high, which descends sheer into the loch (here thirty fathoms deep), and is often called the "Black Rock," from its generally dark colour. The peregrine falcon builds her nest on a tiny ledge of this cliff, on which the young falcons are reared, unless the wary keeper shoots or traps the old birds; or else, let down by a rope fastened round his armpits, robs the nest of eggs or young, as I have witnessed.

On the Black Rock it is said there was formerly an eyrie of the golden eagle, until the ledge where the nest used to be built was destroyed or detached by a flash of lightning.

In the face of the Black Rock, on the northern end, is a cave, hidden by a mass of ivy, about twenty yards above the water, and almost inaccessible. The hardy and sure-footed Highlander, John Mackenzie,--who was the last post-runner from Dingwall to Gairloch, and was called Iain Mor am Post (Part II., chap. x.),--succeeded in entering this cave, and reported that twelve men might sit in it. The cave is called in Gaelic Uamh gu do roghiann, or "the cave for your choice," a name supposed to refer to some love story now forgotten.

The steamer proceeds alongside the slopes and below the crags of Tollie. The highest point of this range is 1123 feet in height. Some forty years ago a sad event occurred on the side of Craig Tollie. Heather burning, which is carried on in the months of March and April every year, in the interests alike of grouse and sheep, was in hand, and a newly engaged fox-hunter or trapper was assisting. Smothered by the smoke and overtaken by a sudden rush of flame, he was burned to death. Grand effects, as if blazing lava were pouring down the hillsides, are often witnessed during the annual seasons of heather-burning.

Stepping on to Tollie pier, we have completed the tour of Loch Maree, and again enter the carriage or "machine," which returns to Gairloch by the way we came.

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XIV. THE FIONN LOCH AND ITS DUBH LOCH

By WILLIAM JOLLY.

There is no royal road to learning, and there is no "royal route" to our finest scenery. The common tourist, like the sheep, meekly follows the beaten tracks, missing the better bits, which only the hardier and more adventurous pedestrian finds, like the more independent goat. There are a hundred nooks of rarest beauty and wildest grandeur hidden away in our mountainous land, far from the sheep runs of coaches and hotels, and their mere enumeration would be longer than a Gaelic song or a Highland sermon.

One of these nooks may be found not far from Loch Maree. Immediately to the north of the lake stretches one of the least frequented tracts in broad Scotland,--the region that surrounds the beautiful, many-islanded, salt-water Loch Gruinard. Here, right across the high range which skirts the north shore of Loch Maree from Beinn Aridh Charr to Slioch, lies the Fionn Loch, with its upper chamber, the Dubh Loch. Fionn Loch--that is "the fair lake"--is so called from its contrast to its darker portion, the Dubh or "black" Loch. Its name contains the word that has become classical in the famous name of the heroic Fingal, "the fair stranger" of some interpreters; and in the less known but real name of the equally famous Flora Macdonald, Fionnghal, "the fair one."

The Fionn Loch may be reached by the hardier climber by crossing Loch Maree from Talladale, and dropping down on it through the pass behind Letterewe. But the easier, and in a scenic point of view better, way is to go from Gairloch or Poolewe by the good road which runs to its very shores. From Gairloch the way is unusually fine, commanding one of the best views of the queen of Scottish lakes, from the very spot rendered famous by Horatio Macculloch's great picture; passing the sweet sea gulf of Loch Ewe, and skirting the picturesque banks of the swift-flowing Ewe, which carries the waters of the great lake to the ocean. Leaving this clear stream you enter on a wild heathery region, till lately trodden only by the firm foot of the hunter or the pedestrian in search of game or the picturesque. You soon catch a view of Loch Kernsary, holding its prehistoric artificial island, and of its knots of trees, a pretty picture, with Loch Ewe looking like a lake, and the sea in the distance. You soon leave the Torridon sandstone and enter on the ancient barrenness of the Hebridean gneiss, covered by innumerable erratic blocks, the representatives of the Arctic era when ancient Caledonia was a Greenland and Fionn Loch was swathed in ice. From an eminence on a spur of the Rowan Tree Hill, you at last look down on Loch Fionn. It is a large sheet of fresh water, seven miles in length, enclosed within winding shores, diversified by islands, and surrounded by a magnificent range of mountains, which stand about it on every side but the one next the sea. In fine weather it forms a splendid mirror set in a fretted frame of alpine carving, seldom surpassed for wild and picturesque beauty. In storm it becomes a furious sea of crested waves, under driving rain, rolling mist, and howling winds. These descend with uncommon strength from frowning mountains, which guard a scene then almost as wild, dark, and grand as Coruisk itself. From its character and surroundings the lake assumes either aspect with equal ease.

Right in the centre of the view stands Craig an Dubh Loch, or the "black loch crag," a bare precipitous mountain, whose white front at once catches the eye and unifies the wide-sweeping view. On both sides of this central point there extends a semi-circle of mountains, a splendid range of rocky masses,--those to the right, pointed and craggy; those to the left, more rounded and sloping, and grassed to the summit. The striking peak farthest to the right is Beinn Aridh Charr, "the ben of the rough shieling." It presents a front of steep precipice, two thousand feet in height, and has a cairn of immense blocks at its base, called the Cairn of the Caves, till a few years ago an eyrie of the golden eagle. The hill next it is Meall Mheannidh, or the "middle mountain," so named as lying between it and the grander mass beyond. That is Beinn Lair, or "the ben of the mare," which rises right from the widest part of Loch Maree. From the left of the central Craig an Dubh Loch stretches a series of mountains with different trying names. The fine peak next to it bears the pretty title of Maighdean, "the Jungfrau, or Maiden." The highest is Beinn a Chaisgean Mor, and the farthest to the left is Fhridh Mheallan. This long mountain screen is singularly varied in outline and aspect, being both precipitous and rolling, peaked and rounded, and greatly diversified in contour and colouring. The hills are separated from each other, especially those to the right, by deep narrow glens, which afford passage across the range, and increase their picturesqueness.

On the right hand, the loch is separated from the steep mountains by a narrow stretch of rough heathery moorland, containing many small lakes; to the left, the hills swell right from the water in green rounded slopes. At the lower end, the lake divides into several sinuous branches, with numerous tributary lochans, and its waters are discharged by a stream, a few miles in length, which falls into the sea at the head of Gruinard Bay.

It is nigh twenty years since I first visited this romantic spot, along with some scientific friends, intent on geologic and scenic pursuits; one of whom, Dr James Bryce, has since perished in the pursuit of science, near the Fall of Foyers, where a monument, subscribed by his admirers, marks the tragic spot. We followed the wild mountain track between Beinn Aridh Charr and the lake, up to its head, and had a glorious day.

Many years after I paid the scene a second visit, accompanied by other friends; one of these, the proprietor, Mr Osgood Mackenzie, whose unrivalled knowledge of the country, and especially of its birds, completed our enjoyment.

The morning was lovely, the sky blue and flecked with light fleecy clouds, though the air was electrical, with threatening masses of raincloud which darkened part of the day. The colouring was unusually fine, the shadows transparent, the sunshine warm and mild, and the sheen on the water such as our artist declared could be painted only by Alfred W. Hunt. The severity of the retreating winter was revealed in July in several patches of snow, which gleamed in some of the corries, chiefly in the group at the head of the lake. Everything was favourable to high influence and happiness,--the threatening possibilities of storm only adding new elements to the scene.

Embarking at the pier, we rowed slowly up the smooth lake, enjoying the scenery and passing several islands, the haunts of some of our rarer birds. Reaching a sandy bay, about half-way up the loch on the right, we landed beneath a projecting cliff called Rudha Dubh, or "the black cape," which bears a singular resemblance to a Highland bonnet, a perched block on its crest appropriately completing the likeness by way of tassel. We ascended till we came in sight of two other lochs with islands, called Lochanan Beannach, or "the lakelets of the bens." There we rested for lunch, in view also of the Fionn Loch and its opposite hills, and beneath the crags of Beinn Aridh Charr. From this point the nearest of the peaks of this Beinn presents a perfect natural dome, which at once suggests a gigantic St Paul's. The pass between this peak and its neighbour, the Middle Hill, is unusually low, some two thousand feet under the enclosing mountains. It forms a grand inverted curve, almost as fine in sweep as the hollow of Glen Rosa in Arran, with the peaks of Beinn Eay and Liathgach on Loch Torridon, visible through it in blue distance.

The situation was simply charming, and luncheon there amidst such surroundings, with genial friends, pure pleasure. Its interest and beauty were increased by watching two black-throated divers (Colymbi Arctici) on one of the lakelets below, a very rare sight in this country. They had a pair of tiny babies, just hatched, whom they tended with pretty care, keeping them between them as they quietly oared themselves onwards, circling round them at times, and gently leading them to greater effort, and wider range,--altogether a pretty group of nature's nurslings.

Taking boat again and rounding the Black Cape, we left our artist and his wife at the next rocky point, which charmed them, there to sketch the remarkable mountains round the Dubh Loch, while we explored the upper reaches of the lake. The precipitousness and grandeur of the hills increased with nearness. Fresh peaks rose into view, and the old took new and more striking forms with each new point of sight. Many tops, unseen before, opened up to the left of the Maiden,--the Ruadh Stac, or "red peak," so called from its red Cambrian strata, a fine contrast to the Carn Bhan, or "white cairn," in front of it, formed of bare glistening pegmatite; and a remarkable hill called Scuir a Laocainn, which means either "Scuir of the calf-skin," so named from some ancient legend or fancied appearance, or, according to one of my friends, the "Scuir of the heroes."

We landed in a flat bay called Poll Fraochainn, or "the heathery pool," on the right of Craig an Dubh Loch, in order that I might reach the precipices of Beinn Lair. The way to them, through a narrow pass right ahead, is steep and trackless, but the reward is well worth the toil. It skirts the base of a high cliff on the right, where you are greeted by the mountain sorrel, last seen on Ben Nevis, with its bright green and russet leaves, which will refresh your parched throat; the rare Cornus suessica, or dwarf dogwood, occurring also near the big Ben; the beautiful European globe flower; and by abundant oak fern and other charms for the lover of wildflowers.

With stout heart you soon reach a green platform between two valleys, where a wonderful scene at once bursts on your sight,--a straight, narrow, long-drawn glen stretching for miles before you, with Loch Fada at its farther end, skirted all along its right side by a continuous wall of gigantic cliffs, which are the back of Beinn Lair. These cliffs are practically vertical, forming a sheer precipice above fifteen hundred feet in height. They are singularly barren of vegetation except on the ledges of the rock, and strangely mottled in colour, with grey lichen on dark rock. They are scarred and fissured with countless deep vertical cracks running from base to summit, which, by carrying the eye upwards, increase the apparent altitude. Their crest is jagged, pointed, domed, and battlemented, in a wonderful serrated edge. Seen from this point the long cliffs stretch down the glen in splendid succession, rampart behind rampart, which are separated by the vertical fissures of the gneiss. The whole is clothed in sombre deep purple, tending to black. Except for the trickling runnels from the rock, the scene is solitary and silent even to sadness, with a powerful grandeur which becomes painful from its impressiveness. In a thunderstorm it must pass conception. The Honister Crag, near Borrodale, in Cumberland, magnificent as it is in a dying sunset, is narrow and poor in comparison.

In returning by the top of the hill that rises above the pass to the south, I passed a great perched block, fifteen feet long and ten feet high, a standing witness of the Ice Age. An old hill fort on the head of this ridge, formed by a strong enclosing wall, was an unexpected sight in such a retired region, indicating more inhabitants in the old days. It commands an unsurpassed prospect over the whole lake country below, westwards to the open Minch with the dim Uists in the far horizon.

Descending, I caught the old road to Loch Broom, which crosses the Bealloch from Letterewe on Loch Maree, and which led me straight to the boat.

After embarking, we pulled till just under the front of Craig an Dubh Loch, a precipice above a thousand feet high, whose remarkable whiteness had arrested the eye from the first. This is caused by the presence of the pale granite, called pegmatite, which runs over the face of the cliff in serpentine lines and masses, expanding and contracting, and stretching in tongue-like extensions to the summit, where it is again broadly developed. This curious granite gives the cliff the general aspect of the precipices of Cape Wrath or Skye, with their volcanic intrusions and contortions, as figured by Macculloch and Nicol.

The upper part of the Fionn Loch glen narrows into a steep close corrie, occupied by the waters of the Dubh Loch, and a higher green cul de sac, with its mountain streamlet, enclosed by Craig an Dubh Loch on the right, and the Maiden and her rugged companions to the left or north. The Dubh Loch is a dark, deep pool, grand in a scenic and most interesting in a geological view. It forms a marked contrast to the expansive and brighter Fionn Loch, of which, nevertheless, it is merely an alpine chamber; and the contrasted names given by the old Celts to two parts of the same water, the "white" and the "black," are as true as they are descriptive. Their general aspect shows this sufficiently, but when viewed from any of the neighbouring hills, the truth of the description is more evident. The Dubh Loch always bears a dark look if not a sullen frown, even in a calm, looking then like a pavement of black Galway marble.

The Dubh Loch forms a well-curved crescent, its concave side being occupied by Craig an Dubh Loch. Crossing the causeway between the lakes, the traveller should ascend the steep rocky hill, called Carn na Paite, some three hundred feet high, which is isolated from the mountains beyond by a deep valley. Its top commands a wonderful view of the whole alpine scene, and enables you to see the steep silent corrie at the head of the Dubh Loch, and thus complete your survey. The scenery from this central point of vantage is very grand, being wild, desolate, and imposing, unusually stern in character and colouring, and as lonely and separate from the world as Manfred or the most misanthropic could desire.

When we left the Dubh Loch, a fierce thunder shower burst, the big drops being sent sharply into the lake like hail, with a pellet-like force and high upward rebound of water. Viewed through this wonderful screen of rain and mist, the great mountains became mere flat shadows. Then it changed to a misty gauze, returned again and again to a black obliterating denseness, and then cleared off till the hill-tops held the upper clouds like volcanic smoke from active craters, the whole scene passing through many grand and beautiful phases from thundery rain to sunshine. It was a splendid exhibition of the scene in its alpine aspects, and completed the pictures of the varied day.

In the middle of the falling rain we picked up our artists, drenched, but delighted, though with unfinished canvas. The wet prevented a visit to some of the islands in this part of the loch which we wished to see, the haunts of some of our rarer birds that still linger in this wild Highland loch. In Eilean a Chuillin, on the north side, a heronry is said to have been destroyed by golden eagles from the rocks on Beinn Aridh Charr, one of the accused being poisoned in consequence. In Eilean nan Corr-sgreach, that is the "heron's isle," the largest heronry perhaps in the country still flourishes on stumpy crooked birch and holly trees, the flapping wings of the birds being visible through the mist. On another island close by this one, the very rare goosander used recently to build, Mr Mackenzie being the first discoverer of its nest in Scotland. On another islet close by the opposite shore the white-tailed eagle nested more than twenty years ago. On Eilean Molach, near the pier, the black-throated diver still exists. The peregrine falcon then haunted the scene, having its eyrie on the cliffs of Beinn Aridh Charr, and one flew over our heads, chased close to his nest by two angry curlews; but he has, it seems, now deserted the place. Other still rarer species yet linger in this retired spot.

It is devoutly to be hoped that they will long continue to do it honour, guarded by the proprietors, and all good and true men. Happily none are allowed on the lake unless under the care of sanctioned boatmen; and the whole has now been forested. These means of protection, we trust, will preserve these rare creatures as a beauty and a boast for generations to come. In this connexion, nothing shows the defects of the moral and æsthetic training of our people more than the prevalent desire, in even the so-called cultivated classes, to destroy such unusual visitants, some of them harmless. If individual kindliness and sense will not do it, public indignation and penal enactment should be invoked for their preservation.

Our artist and his wife returned by carriage to comfort and shelter. Wishing to see more we crossed the rough country, covered with boulders, lakes and bogs, that lies between this and Loch Ewe. We were disappointed at not reaching Loch an Iasgair, that is the "loch of the fisher or osprey." This rare and interesting bird seems now to have quite deserted this alpine region, though once abundant both here and in the islands of Loch Maree. We visited, however, an immense block of gneiss not far from the loch, borne hither in glacial times, twenty feet long, ten broad, and fifteen high, with steep inaccessible sides, crowned by two feet of moss, and adorned with grass, heather and bushes. Forty years ago a pair of marten cats committed such havoc amongst the lambs that they were watched and followed, but they were always lost sight of just when their lair was thought to be reached. Both dogs and men were long at fault, till a pair of sharper eyes one day observed the clever martens leap to the top of our boulder in two bounds. That was, of course, the end of their history, of the Martens of Castle Marten, as they were called by my friend; for they were followed, and themselves and their young exterminated. This big block is but one of countless others of all sizes scattered over this rude mossy territory, in which they form a special feature; their glacial history being further corroborated by the abundant, well rounded, polished, and striated roches moutonnées, here so abundantly scattered between the hills and the sea.

Reaching an eminence which commanded the whole of the Fionn Loch and its enclosing peaks, the last look we had of it revealed it in a bright, pearly light, exquisitely fresh after the rain, its now smooth surface reflecting a silvery sheen in the descending sun, and showing the appropriateness of its name, the "fair lake."

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XV. LOCH GRUINARD

By WILLIAM JOLLY.

Of all the sea-lochs in the West Highlands, I long thought that Loch Duich, the southern branch of Loch Alsh, bore the palm on the mainland, not only as viewed from the road above the kirk of Loch Alsh, but as enjoyed on the surface of the loch itself, amidst its picturesque and elevated peaks. But after seeing Loch Gruinard, many years ago, in its smiling and varied beauty, homage has been divided. Yet the two scenes are scarcely comparable, so different are they in type,--the one with even shores and unbroken surface, and closely beset by towering mountains; the other open and expansive, and varied with numerous isles. Each is to be admired for its own sake, and both reveal somewhat of the wealth of scenic loveliness created by the union of "the mountain and the flood" in our beautiful land.

Seven miles from Poolewe is Aultbea, with the smooth green Eilean Ewe in front of it, in the middle of Loch Ewe, a transcript of southern cultivation amidst Highland crofts. Before descending on the village the road rises high above the sea, and shews a wonderful view. At your feet lies an upper reach of Loch Ewe, called Tournaig Bay, in calm, smooth as a mirror, which forms the eye of the picture. Beyond it stretches a rolling plateau of bare parti-coloured rock in front, and a screen of great summits round Loch Fionn and Loch Maree behind. You can distinguish, from the left, the fair Maiden, the pointed Beinn Aridh Charr, the bright Beinn Eay, the dark Beinn Alligin, and their numerous fellows, onwards to the lesser eminences behind Gairloch. The crowded sandstone peaks, crowned with the white Quartzite, like Beinn Eay, look in the distance like the white crests of gigantic billows suddenly arrested in wild tumult and transformed to stone.

Near Aultbea you turn to the right, and cross the neck of the peninsula of flat Cambrian sandstone that terminates in the Greenstone Point. Near the top of the ridge the road passes through several long serpentine ridges of gravelly débris, with countless embedded blocks. These are the lateral moraines of the huge glaciers that pushed their resistless march from the mountains above out to sea. They are good and patent examples of their class, interesting as existing so far from the parent source of the great ice-sheet of which they were the enclosing walls, and which has left its footprints in well-marked scratchings and polishings on all the exposed rocks round.

A little beyond the highest and best moraine a point is attained where the whole expanse of Loch Gruinard suddenly comes into view. It forms a broad bay, land-locked on right and left, and open to the Minch on the north. On a day of sunshine and shadow it is truly a fair and picturesque scene.

The free sea in front is soon broken up by islands. Eilean Gruinard lies to the right; Priest Island is the nearest in front; and behind it is an archipelago of rocks and islands, of varied size and outline, called by the pleasant name of the Summer Isles. Bold headlands stretch far beyond. To the left is the wide Minch, with the low lands of the Lews in the dim horizon, terminating in the Butt. On the right the bay is enclosed by the indented shores of the mainland, at the entrances of Great and Little Loch Broom.

Inland extends a long succession of mountain summits, similar to those already seen above Aultbea. Over Rudha Coigeach, tower the great peaks round Loch Assynt and Kyle Skou, conspicuous among which is the cone of Suilven, flanked by Queenaig and Canisp. Next comes the mountain group of Coigeach, crowned by the broad Beinn Mhor. Then, isolated and steep, the dark double-peaked Beinn Gobhlach heaves itself between the two Loch Brooms, and, being separated entirely from the rest, stands as a grand centre to the picture. Finally, closing the line to the right, rise the domed Sail Mor and the pointed peaks that stand round Loch na Sheallag.

This wide expanse of mingled sea and shore, island and mountain, becomes an indelible memory, especially under a favourable sky, bearing with it the proverbial joy.

One extraordinary feature of the scene is the absolute want of trees, except a few at the head of Loch Gruinard. The country looks to the eye as bare of wood as Caithness or the Uists.

But more remains. Descend the road a short distance, and climb a slight eminence on the left, which will tax the strength of none. From its top, low as it is, a still more magnificent prospect may be had, unusual in its sweep and remarkable for the number of hill tops in sight. At one glance your eye commands the whole series of mountains comprised in both the views already obtained, from Sutherland to Applecross, the peaks crowded round Loch na Sheallag and Fionn occupying the centre of the splendid circle. In the far north, in clear weather, the isle of Handa at Scourie is distinctly seen, and under very favourable conditions Cape Wrath itself is reported at times to be visible. Behind you, to the west, appear the outlines of the Lews and Harris, the shadowy representatives of Atlantic lands. This remarkable outlook should by no means be missed.

But there are other matters besides the scenery that will interest not a few. On the shore, where the road strikes the coast, the picturesque old chapel, amid its overgrown graveyard, will draw the antiquarian and the sentimentalist to observe and to meditate. The sandstone cliffs will attract the geologist; and these should interest even the common traveller. The coast consists of a series of steep cliffs, whose unusual redness arrests the eye. Here, hidden away, as it were, in this remote bay, occur two patches of the Trias, one of the rarest systems in Scotland, only a few scattered patches representing that comparatively modern epoch, here enclosed by the two most ancient systems of Britain, the Hebridean gneiss and the Torridon sandstone, as elsewhere explained.

Beyond the sandy bay to the east, the shore rises into high precipices, unusually contorted and picturesque, with isolated stacks and projecting capes, which shew varied forms and remarkable "weathering." A footpath leads down the cliff, and should be followed to the beach. There one of the old caves, excavated by the sea in a crack of the Trias, has been enclosed by a wall and put under lock and key. It is regularly used as a chapel by the Free Church, and there numerous worshippers gather on Sabbath, and, seated on the boulders that form the pews, listen to sacred words and sing their weird Gaelic psalms. This cave is cold and comfortless compared with another at Cove on the other side of Loch Ewe, also utilised as a church. This other is formed in the Torridon sandstone, and is roomy and dry, and well seated with planks laid on stones. The entrance is festooned with wild plants and flowers, and the interior shews a full view of the open bay and the land beyond. Worship under such conditions must be at once picturesque and impressive.

Close to this cave on Gruinard Bay another exhibits a still more interesting sight,--a modern example of the ancient cave-dwellers. It is the home of an old woman of seventy, and a girl her sole companion. The front of the shallow cave has been rudely closed in with stones, turf, and cloths, leaving an opening above through which escapes the smoke of the peat fire. The interior is barely furnished with the simplest of necessities. The fire is close by the door on the left, and the bed lies on the ground on the right just under the open roof, though protected by the projecting rock. The old dame seemed bright as the sunshine when we visited her this summer (1886), and declared that, though rough, the place was more comfortable than it looked. As she drank her simple cup of tea from the top of a box, after putting some clothes to dry upon the shore, with her wrinkled but intelligent face, her Gaelic Bible her only literature, the wild rocks round, and the splash of the restless waves in the ear, this simple, solitary old woman looked as picturesque and pathetic an object as I had ever seen, much more so than the wildest of gipsies at a camp fire. But this is not the place to enter into her story.

Beyond this the road passes through two townships called Coast. These stand where an interesting junction occurs between the Trias system and the Torridon sandstone; while a little further on exists another junction between the Torridon sandstone and the grey contorted gneiss.

The numerous blocks along the shore, mostly foreign to the ground, are monuments of the great Ice Age.

At the very head of Gruinard Bay a large white mansion may be seen embosomed among trees. That is Gruinard House, situated at the mouth of the Gruinard river, perhaps as out-of-the-world a dwelling-place as may be found in broad Scotland. Towards this point the traveller should make his way either by the good road past Fisherfield, or still better by boat from Coast.

The position of the mansion is admirable, being cosily set close by the pebbly shore, on the edge of a fertile old sea terrace, enclosed by crags, knolls, and mounds. These are wild and steep, and clothed with trees and shrubs on their lower flanks, but bare and grand above, one lion-shaped precipitous rock being specially striking. The place is protected from every wind but the north-west, and has a climate as genial as in the south of England. A road runs by the side of the river, which has cut its way through a rocky pass and plunges over a cataract of huge boulders in foaming grandeur. Beyond a little school you come to a flat green meadow, the bed of an ancient lake. At its far extremity the dark craggy peaks of Ben Dearg form a powerful picture, which has been well rendered in a painting by Weedon. Crossing this plain and ascending the steep ridge at its head, you there command a grand view of the great mountains that enclose Loch na Sheallag,--that is "the loch of the hunting,"--the very name shewing that the old Celts looked on this region as the peculiar habitat of wild creatures. The lake itself is hidden by high ranges of the Hebridean gneiss, but you get a full view of the precipitous peaks which rise right from its waters. On the left you have the great mass of Sail Mor, the pointed Scuir a Fiann, and Scuir an Fhithich, the Raven's Rock; and on the right the grand purple peaks of the bold Beinn Deargs, an unusually fine group, excelled by few in the Highlands. In some features Loch na Sheallag and its mountains surpass those of the Fionn Loch, grand as these are. The whole scene is one of remarkable wildness and grandeur, and of unexampled solitariness.

The traveller may return by road to Gairloch back the way he came. But if he is able to face it, he should recross the Meikle Gruinard river, and, ascending the Little Gruinard river, which drains the Fionn Loch, reach Poolewe by the skirts of the mountains, through as rough and picturesque a country as could well be imagined. He has still another course open to him, which will bring him back to the common-places of life. He may order a carriage from Dundonell Hotel, at the end of Little Loch Broom, ten miles distant, or he may take himself thither on foot. There he will find a most comfortable resting-place, and he will certainly think himself fortunate in seeing also the picturesque combinations of glen and mountain, wood and water, which adorn the beautiful Loch Broom.

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XVI. ANGLING IN SEA LOCHS

The north-west Highlands of Scotland are a favourite resort of many anglers. Here the accomplished veteran of the gentle art can find full scope for his consummate skill, and the tyro may often obtain fair sport, inexperienced though he be. There are several classes of anglers who visit the Highlands,--the wealthy man with ample leisure, who takes salmon or trout fishing on lease, together with or apart from shootings and a house or lodge; the determined angler, who spends his annual holiday in this delightful recreation, and usually settles down for several weeks or even months at a hotel at some well-known centre; the less persistent and less fortunate brother of the craft, who in a more desultory manner devotes to it a part or the whole of his briefer holiday; and the tourist, who scarcely claims the name of angler, but carries a rod about with him in his peregrinations, and occasionally takes advantage of such opportunities as may present themselves. For each of these classes there is ample scope in the parish of Gairloch, and my remarks are addressed to all of them.

The angler visiting this country should be provided with at least two rods, viz., first, a trolling rod, strong enough for the powerful lythe of the sea lochs, and yet light enough to be used when trying for the so-called ferox, or large trout of the fresh-water lochs; and secondly, a light single-handed rod, to be used in fly-fishing for the lively sea-trout, or the brown or yellow trout which are to be found in almost all the fresh water in the district. These rods, with a supply of guttapercha sand-eels and strong traces for lythe fishing, lighter traces and artificial minnows for the ferox, and fine gut casts and a variety of flies for trout-fishing, will suffice for all ordinary purposes. The sand-eels and strong traces for the sea can generally be had at the Gairloch Hotel, or may be procured beforehand from Messrs Brooks, Stonehouse, Plymouth. The artificial minnows, and the traces for them and the artificial trout flies, may, of course, be purchased from any good fishing-tackle maker. I recommend Mr W. A. M'Leay and Messrs Graham & Son, both of Inverness, as being well acquainted with local requirements. Perhaps two or three flights of hooks for spinning natural bait for ferox may prove a useful addition. The tackle necessary for salmon fishing is not described, as the visitor to Gairloch is hardly likely to get a chance of this noble sport, unless he has arranged for it before his arrival, or unless he be personally acquainted with those who have rights of salmon fishing in the parish. Waders are not required, except perhaps for trout-fishing in some lochs which have no boat.

With these equipments the angler, or even the tyro, staying at any of the hotels, or taking a lodging, may meet with fair fishing, and ought to be able to keep the table supplied.

Let us begin with a visitor to Gairloch, Poolewe, or Aultbea, who wishes to "sniff the briny," and become acquainted with some of its inhabitants. By arranging the day before, a boat with boatmen may be procured, and they will know the best places to be tried. There are two usual modes of sea-fishing for anglers, viz., trolling for lythe, and hand-line fishing for smaller specimens of the finny tribes of the salt water. For lythe the artificial sand-eels recommended above seem to be the best lure. As a rule the smaller sized sand-eel is the most killing, and the pattern coloured red often beats the white. There is a nearly black form of the artificial sand-eel which is sometimes very attractive. Occasionally the sand-eel answers better with the bright metal spinner at the head. Take care that your trace (which ought to be of very stout triple gut) is sound, and that the swivels on it are working freely. The lead weight, about a yard from the sand-eel, should not be a heavy one. The lythe, which is called the whiting-pollack in England, varies in weight from half a pound to 16 lbs., at least that is the greatest weight up to which I have taken them in Gairloch waters. Many of them run from four to seven pounds, and these are the best fish for the table. The lythe is rather soft, but is an excellent breakfast fish when properly fried, and is sometimes firm enough to boil well. It is a very game fish, and is therefore called by some the salmon of sea fishing. If you hook a good one, be hard upon him at first, for if he once gets down to the sea-weed you will probably lose him and your sand-eel and trace into the bargain. This fish appears to be in season from June to December, but it is not always to be met with, at least in any number. I have had splendid sport with them in June, and equally good in November. On 31st October 1879 we captured (two rods) in Loch Ewe, in an hour and a half, twenty-seven lythe weighing 176 lbs., and a good cod weighing 17 lbs., being a total of 193 lbs.; but this was an exceptionally good bag. Sometimes a cod or coal-fish (saythe) takes the sand-eel, when, if the fish be a large one, the captor thinks he has caught a whale. The lythe are generally found near rocky headlands or round island rocks.

Hand-line fishing is not to be compared with rod fishing for lythe, and therefore I have not recommended the angler to carry hand-lines about with him, but they can generally be borrowed if desired. The boatmen know the best "scalps," or banks, and can also obtain mussels for bait. The fish most commonly taken are whiting, haddocks, gurnard, millers or "goldfish," sea-bream or "Jerusalem haddies," and rarely rock-cod and flounders. For sea-bream you must go further out than for the others. Mackerel are not plentiful in Gairloch waters, and are generally taken with spinning bait. Hand-line fishing requires very close attention and a light touch. If you are not smart the smaller fish will continually get away with your bait. For all kinds of sea-fishing the evening is the best, and a half-tide, either rising or falling, is considered most favourable. It is little use fishing where there are many jelly-fish about.

Sometimes the hand-lines will capture a specimen of the larger fishes (more usually taken by the professional fishermen, who set long lines), such as cod, ling, conger-eel, skate, and even the halibut, locally termed turbot. The conger-eel, as well as the fresh-water eel, are not eaten by the natives, who regard them as allied to the serpent tribe, and therefore related to the tempter! The halibut here frequently attain a large size. In January 1885 I purchased from a fisher-lad his one-third share of a halibut. On arriving at home with my prize I found it scaled fully thirty-three pounds, so that the fish when entire must have weighed 100 lbs. Wonderful stories are told of enormous skate taken on this coast. I have heard 2 cwt. stated as the weight of a single skate! Dr Mackenzie mentions john-dory and mullet as being sometimes captured in Gairloch, but not with bait.

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XVII. ANGLING IN LOCH MAREE

Loch Maree reigns supreme amongst the angling waters of the parish of Gairloch, with the exception of course of its outlet the River Ewe.

It is true that the excessive fishing which followed on the opening of the Loch Maree Hotel at Talladale has to some extent injured the angler's chances, especially by diminishing the number of large black trout usually called ferox. But there is still excellent sport to be had with sea-trout and loch trout.

The angling of Loch Maree is open to visitors staying at the hotels at Kenlochewe and Talladale, except the lower part, about two miles in length, which is reserved by the proprietor for himself and his shooting-tenants. The reserved water includes the whole of the narrow part of the loch lying to the north or north-west of Rudha aird an anail on the west side of the loch, and An Fhridh Dhorch on the north-east side.

The best fishing ground is to be found amongst the bays and shallow banks around the islands and off the points.

The fish in the loch are salmon, sea-trout, and brown trout; no doubt there are also char in the loch; I believe they occur in most Highland lochs, but they are very difficult to take. I never heard of one being caught in Loch Maree; but they say the last Lord Seaforth used to visit Loch Maree every autumn to net char in shallow waters, and that he got them of remarkable size running up to 1 lb. weight. The char is a deep-water fish, and only comes towards the shores for about a fortnight at the end of autumn to spawn.

Salmon are but rarely taken in the loch, though they must be numerous in its waters. I have known one taken with a blue artificial minnow off the Fox Point, and two were bagged in Tollie bay in 1882 with ordinary sea-trout flies and a light rod; one of these weighed 15 lbs. I have heard of other instances of salmon being captured in different parts of the loch; several at its very head, others among the islands, and others again at places I need not specify. The statement made by some gillies that salmon are never taken in Loch Maree is a delusion; that they are not generally taken, I admit; but every angler on Loch Maree, at any time of the year, whether throwing the fly or trolling the minnow, has a chance of hooking a specimen of the monarch of fishes.

Sea-trout come next. In some years they are very abundant, in others comparatively scarce. This fish has different names in different parts of the kingdom. Sometimes it is called the white trout; sometimes the salmon trout; sometimes the sewin. Again the term white trout includes the bull-trout, which is an immigrant from the salt water. The sea-trout of Loch Maree appear to be of three distinct species:--

I. The sea-trout or salmon trout (Salmo trutta); II., the bull-trout (Salmo eriox); III., the finnock or whitling (scientific name unknown to me). Some say the finnock is a samlet.

Of these No. I. is abundant; No. II., scarce; and No. III., which never exceeds half a pound in weight, is also abundant. The sea-trout here vary from ¾ lb. to about 6 lbs.; they afford excellent sport, and are good eating. The sea-trout fishing is at its best in the months of July, August, and September. The finnocks are nice little fish, and for their size give pleasant sport. The only bull-trout I have known were taken from the Ewe.

Salmon and sea-trout fishings in Scotland belong exclusively to the crown and its grantees. In Gairloch the fishings are held by Sir Kenneth Mackenzie, Bart. of Gairloch, under an ancient charter from the crown. Any person taking a salmon or sea-trout, without the permission of Sir Kenneth, is simply a poacher.

Brown trout are not so plentiful nor so large as they used to be. In Part IV., chap. xiii., I have mentioned the large trout killed in the bay of Corree, or Ob a Choir 'I, in the summer of 1878, when I was fishing along with a friend. This splendid fish weighed 21 lbs. when we got it to the nearest railway station, then at Dingwall. It was certainly not a sea-fish, i.e. not a bull-trout, salmon, or sea-trout, and it had not the large head and wild look of the fish usually called ferox; in my opinion it was just a brown trout.

Here I must propound my pet theory, that the so-called ferox and the brown or yellow trout are one and the same species. I have caught, or known caught, a number of large trout out of Loch Maree and other smaller Gairloch lochs, weighing from three to twelve lbs., besides the 21 lb. fish of 1878. I am quite aware of the number of large fish taken during years past in Fionn Loch, and I have shared in the capture of some of them. I know that the greater part of these fish would generally be classed under the head of Salmo ferox. I feel sure they were only ordinary trout which had grown to an extraordinary size; many of them were completely out of condition, like a spent salmon; one or two, indeed, were not trout at all, but were spent salmon. I have talked with several old anglers, who professed to know the points of a ferox; none of them agreed in their diagnosis, and the characteristics they tried to point out were obscure, and to my mind not distinctive. Everyone knows that trout vary greatly in size, form, and appearance, according to the nature of the water and the bottom, and the quality and quantity of food. Even from the same loch I have seen trout, taken on the same day, so unlike each other that a tyro would have been pardoned for calling them different species. I have noticed no differences between the so-called ferox and any other large brown trout, that have not corresponded with the differences between various specimens of the smaller fish. It seems to me that whenever some anglers capture a trout above 3 lbs. weight they call it a ferox.

The ordinary loch trout are taken with similar flies to the sea-trout, but if you want the big ones you must troll either natural bait or the artificial minnow. The large brown, or rather black, trout (the so-called ferox) are never worth eating, and are rarely beautiful objects to look at; they would be seldom sought for, but that salmon fishing is so costly that many anglers can only realise the excitement of playing a salmon when they succeed in hooking what they call a Salmo ferox.

Sir George Steuart Mackenzie wrote:--"In Loch Maree is that species of trout called the gizzard trout." I suppose he meant the variety commonly called the gilaroo trout, which occurs in a loch near Inchnadamph, in Sutherland. I can only say I never caught one, nor heard of one being caught, in Loch Maree or any other loch in Gairloch.

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XVIII. ANGLING IN FRESH-WATER LOCHS

Besides Loch Maree there are many other fresh-water lochs within the parish of Gairloch; they are enumerated in Part III., chap. i. Those which are within deer forests or grouse shootings are nearly all strictly preserved, but permission to fish several good ones may be obtained by visitors staying at the different hotels. Those in private lodgings may sometimes get limited permission to fish, but except at Poolewe this cannot be easily obtained.

There are very few lochs which do not contain trout of more or less respectable quality, yet trout are not so numerous in Gairloch waters as they were formerly. Writing of trout as they were in the early part of the nineteenth century Dr Mackenzie says:--"Seventy years ago (about 1815) there were in every pool of water in our west (Gairloch) the most marvellous quantities of trout. Our lakes were, I suppose, never counted. Innumerable, like the trout, some contained good, well-fed, pink-fleshed trout, and others a mere mob of say four ounce bags of water. These filled the pools that ran to the sea from every loch in shoals, and, singular to say, sometimes as plentiful above falls, far too high for any fish to swim up, as below them. I have been told that water beetles, all of whom can fly, have been caught fresh from a feast on fish roe, with some of the roe adhering to their back; and in this way it is supposed fish have been planted in lakes from which there was no stream, or none up which they could have found their way.

"I have often filled a large fishing-basket twice over in a few hours in a hill burn not two miles long, and requiring much cookery help ere their consumers praised them.

"I have never yet heard an explanation why there are only about one trout in the same burns and lochs for every ten now that there used to be seventy years ago; unless it be that then the moors washed into the lochs far more cattle débris than there happens now, when sheep with their horrid anti-fish 'tarry-woo' are everywhere, with a flavour as hateful to fish as it is to game; no eatable insect growing in sheep débris, while from cattle and horses crowds go to feed fish."

The Doctor's theory, that the falling off in the numbers of trout is due to the substitution of sheep for cattle, is generally accepted. Something is also due to unconscious expansion in reminiscences of the good old days, surrounded as they are by the halo of youthful enthusiasm; and no doubt there is too a real falling off in the number and weight of trout, owing to increased travelling facilities bringing north a far larger number of tourist-anglers. However extensive a loch may be, it must be remembered that its deepest parts are seldom feeding ground for trout, which mostly congregate in the shallows adjoining the shores and on the few banks there may be further out.

Next to Loch Maree itself, Fionn Loch, which is five hundred feet above the sea level, is the best known. It used to be celebrated for its yield of the so-called ferox. There is a wonderful record of the large number of these monsters that were captured in the months of March and April some thirty years ago by a celebrated sportsman.

My own experience of Fionn Loch is, that the trout have slowly but surely fallen off in number and size. In 1871 I remember making some grand baskets on this high-level loch. We used to pass the night at the shepherd's house in the bay of Feachasgean, and the evening and the morning made our day. Our bags generally included two or three fish of four or five pounds, and a dozen or two ranging from one to two pounds, at which last weight we could have got as many as we wished with a favourable breeze. At this time it was almost a virgin loch, and there was no road within four miles of it.

Perhaps the best day's trout fishing I ever had was on a glaring hot day in June 1874, when in the upper pools of the Little Gruinard river, a short distance below Fionn Loch, I caught with ordinary trout flies one monster of ten pounds, about a dozen from two to three pounds, and a large number of lesser fish.

Permission must now be obtained to fish Fionn Loch, and no angler need expect to make the bags of the old times, either in number or size.

At the head of Fionn Loch is a smaller loch, called the Dubh Loch, swarming with large trout. In 1876 and 1877 this sheet of water was the subject of litigation. The Lord Ordinary, in the Outer House of the Court of Session, decided that the Dubh Loch was not a separate loch from the Fionn Loch, and that Mr O. H. Mackenzie had a joint right of fishing in it as well as in the Fionn Loch, part of the shores of which belong to him. This decision was reversed by the Inner House, whose judgment was (on appeal) finally upheld by the House of Lords. The issue raised was a nice one, and depended on the determination of several interesting questions.

In a small loch on the Inverewe ground, on 24th September 1874, I hooked three trout of one pound each at one cast, and succeeded in landing them all. I have several times landed three small trout on the same cast when fishing the Little Gruinard river, but I never got three really good ones except that once.

All the lochs open to visitors at the hotels yield fair sport to the fly-fisher, and those who like bait fishing will be sure of a nice bag of trout from any of the smaller lochs, if the tempting worm be tried in the "gloaming," or twilight.

Large trout may be captured by trolling on Loch Kernsary, which is, I believe, open to visitors staying at the Poolewe Hotel. It is my opinion, as already said, that char exist in most Highland lochs. I have only known these pretty little fish to have been actually taken from four of the lochs in Gairloch. Loch Kernsary is the only one of these lochs which is open to tourist-anglers. Char may be taken by the angler, and possibly may be thrown into the creel without the captor noticing the red belly which is the chief distinction between the char and the trout. Very few char are taken in Gairloch, and they are usually small, about four or five to the pound. In flavour they are not to be distinguished from trout, any more than the pink-fleshed trout are to be distinguished from those with white flesh. If you doubt me, try an experiment; let some one whose palate you can trust be blindfolded, and he or she will, to your surprise, be unable to discriminate between char and trout, and between pink and white-fleshed trout. Take care the experiment be tried fairly, and it will not fail.

The ordinary trout of the country do not rise to the fly before May, and then in no great numbers. In June they yield good sport, but July is the month in which the largest bags of well-conditioned trout may be expected. Trout fishing requires more delicate skill than salmon fishing, and is grand training of the senses of sight and touch.

There are eels in all the lochs and streams, but they are seldom hooked, and, when they are, what a mess they make of your tackle!

The only other fish in the fresh waters of Gairloch is the voracious pike. I believe this monster only occurs in the Feur (or Fiar) Loch and Loch Bad na Sgalaig, and in the river Kerry, all in connection, and I only hope he will not spread further. Dr Mackenzie gives the following account of the importation of pike to Gairloch. Writing of his boyhood, he says:--"No loch had pike till one black day my eldest brother inveigled me into catching a dozen small pike in the east coast Blackwater and driving them to the west, where I launched them safely into Fiar Loch, a small twenty acre sheet surrounded with bullrushes, and just boiling with innumerable trout. It only communicated with one other lake, and from it the pike flew to the sea over a high waterfall, down which we never dreamed that the abominable creatures would go. Very soon the lochs were not boiling with trout on a summer evening as of old, and plans were laid for famous pike-fishing with trimmers, or a flock of geese with trout-baited hooks fastened to their legs and sent across the loch. But ere this ploy came off a salmon fisher in the river below the falls caught a fine pike on his salmon hook; the abomination was one of those I had launched into Fiar Loch, and who ought to have broken his neck when shooting the Kerry falls; alas, it was quite ower true a tale! The vermin had learned that the Kerry was a salmon river with lots of delicious smolts there in May, and parr, i.e. young salmon, all the rest of the year. So they soon stocked every pool in the Kerry, and a salmon in that river has for years become a greater wonder than a white blackbird; the fry all carefully eaten up, and few salmon return to the Kerry."

Sir Kenneth Mackenzie, the present baronet of Gairloch, states that none of the pike above-mentioned as having been put into Feur Loch survived, and that pike were introduced (or re-introduced) in his day--about 1848.

With this I commend the fish of Gairloch to all jolly anglers, only begging them not to angle where they have no permission, and not to interfere with other people who have a superior right.

May good sport wait on the patient angler!

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XIX. SALMON ANGLING

Salmon fishing is undoubtedly at the head of all angling, whether in Gairloch or any other part of the world. Here it may be enjoyed under very pleasurable conditions, and with fair prospects of sport.

There are five salmon rivers in the parish of Gairloch, viz.:--the Kenlochewe or Garbh river, the Kerry, the Badachro, the Ewe, and the Little Gruinard river.

The river Ewe is by far the best of them. It has, or had, the reputation of being one of the best salmon rivers in the Highlands, but since the removal of the last of the cruives it has not yielded large bags to the angler, except in a few unusually good seasons. The cruives were removed about 1852, with the object of lowering Loch Maree, and so draining land at the head of the loch. The cruives consisted of dams or weirs constructed across the river, containing openings; in these were inserted boxes or large creels, through which the water could pass down the river, but fish could not pass up except at certain times when the cruives were open. The oldest cruive on the Ewe was that which is still called "the old cruive," a little below the Poolewe manse. A great part of the dam still remains. The lower banks of stones were the original cruive; the higher dam was more recent. When entire the old cruive was frequently used by pedestrians as a means of crossing the river, which had then no bridge. Some deaths by drowning occurred here. For instance, the piper Roderick Campbell (Part II., chap. xvi.) was drowned whilst endeavouring to cross this cruive. Again, an American merchant was drowned in the pool below the old cruive about sixty years ago. He was crossing the cruives when his tall hat flew off; he swam across the pool to recover it, and he got to it on the little island, and stood there a minute. In returning, the stream at the tail of the pool was too strong for him, and carried him down to the rough water, where Alexander Maclennan, the old mason of Moss Bank, saw him dashed against a large stone or rock opposite the Poolewe Free church, and so killed. He saw the poor man no more; the body was found, a fortnight after, at the ebb, on the Ploc-ard side of the head of Loch Ewe. It was long after this time that the old cruive was abandoned, and the new cruive was erected just at the foot of the navigable water of the Ewe, where are the remains of the old ironworks called the "Red Smiddy." This cruive appears to have only existed for some ten years; it was removed about 1852, as already stated. Great numbers of fish were taken in these cruives. Bag-nets and other engines for taking salmon in the sea are still sanctioned by the legislature, and some people think the gradual but certain diminution in the stock of fish is due to them, though this charge is by no means proved. There is sometimes a good year, like 1883, but on the whole the tendency is downwards, as both the net-fisher and angler complain.

The fortunate angler who has permission to fish the Ewe must first learn something of the pools on the river. The Ewe is nearly two miles long from the place where it leaves Loch Maree, close above Inveran, to the bridge at Poolewe. Taking the casts from Loch Maree downwards, we find on the east side of the river (whose course is very little west of due north) the following pools or casts:--There is a cast, almost useless, at the lower end of the kitchen garden at Inveran; it is difficult to fish from the shore, and I have never known anything but a chance sea-trout taken from it. Sir Kenneth Mackenzie once captured two bull-trout here. The Upper Narrow below the fir wood comes next; it is an excellent cast when the river is high. Below this the river expands, and at the end of the birch wood, where it begins to contract again, is a cast called the "Kelt corner;" it is of little use, but sometimes a grilse is hooked in it. The Middle and Lower (or Little) Narrows are the next casts, and are both good; indeed, I would rather have the Middle Narrow than all the rest of the river. The Lower Narrow is a favourite resting-place of running fish, after struggling through the rough water below. Then comes the New Cruive Pool, which is excellent, and fishes best from this side. Below is a stream called Mac Cordaigh; in Gaelic the name signifies "the pool of the son of Mac Cordaigh," who was probably a noted angler, but whose deeds are lost in the obscurity of the past. Below is the Ash Pool, a good place for grilse. Some distance further on is the Craig Pool, or Manse Pool, which is difficult to fish from this side, owing to the high rough rock which juts down into it. The flat between this pool and the old cruive affords a considerable stretch of good fishing when the river is in spate, but is useless when the river is low. The Old Cruive Pool, immediately below the cruive wall, is an uncertain place. Alongside the Free Church meeting-house is the Sea Pool; it fishes better from the other side. From the other side of the river are the following casts, viz.:--The Middle and Lower Narrows, same as the other side; the New Cruive and Mac Cordaigh; and then the Ash Pool and the Hen Pool. The Manse Pool, which comes next, is best fished from this side. It often holds good fish, but they are "very stiff." The "flat" is well worth fishing from this side; it requires a pretty long cast, and there is a bank behind. The Old Cruive Pool being out of reach, the next and last pool on this side is the Sea Pool, an excellent cast. There is a beautiful dark pool below Poolewe bridge. It looks very tempting, but it is very rarely indeed that a salmon is taken in it. I have, however, known a grilse of 7 lbs. weight, and several good sea-trout, taken from it.

The Ewe is not an early river, and many of the fish that do come in the spring run through into Loch Maree, and as far as Loch Clair. The kelts, or spent fish, often remain in the river until May or even June. There is generally a run of salmon early in May. The grilse and more salmon come in June and July, especially July, and fish continue running until the breeding season in November; indeed, some say there are always fresh-run fish in the water. If a low state of the water hinders the kelts from going down to the sea, they become very numerous in the Ewe in the spring, and I have landed as many as eight in one day. Of course they had to be returned to the river, pursuant to law. The Ewe salmon is a handsome fish when fresh run. I once caught a fresh-run bull-trout in the river weighing 21 lbs., a very handsome fish. The natives call these bull-trout Norwegian salmon. Mr Osgood H. Mackenzie, some years ago, caught one of them which weighed 27 lbs., the largest fish he ever took from the Ewe. I have caught several large sea-trout, which were of the same species. A few of the ordinary sea-trout are got in the river when they are running up to Loch Maree, and occasionally a respectable brown trout. The largest salmon on record from the Ewe weighed, I believe, 34 lbs., and was taken from Mac Cordaigh by an angler fishing on the west bank of the river. I got a fine hen salmon of 30 lbs. from the Middle Narrow in August 1876. The best flies for the Ewe have yellow or black bodies rough and full, and mixed wings also pretty full, jay hackle or heron hackle, and a gold pheasant tail. Small flies kill best, unless the river be in spate.

If the Ewe could tell its own tale, it would mention many illustrious characters, and would no doubt give us some good stories of them. Here is an amusing yarn of Dr Mackenzie's. Speaking of the landlady (about 1808) of the Kenlochewe Inn, the doctor writes:--

"She would wait long for a character from the late Sir Humphrey Davy, who used to fish and write 'Salmonia' on the river Ewe. Once going east with Lady Davy, he had put up a 20 lb. pattern salmon, probably to show his friends what sort of fish he was catching. They arrived at the inn, when, I suppose, the larder was rather empty, and the landlady, who valued a salmon no more than any other fish, imagined the twenty pounder was being carried by Siromfredavi (as a foreigner once addressed him by letter) to help empty Highland larders as he moved through the land; so she chopped Mr Salmo in two, without a hint or 'by your leave,' and astonished her guests by presenting it boiled as their mainstay for dinner! It was reported that Sir Humphrey's ugly language was audible half a mile away, and that listeners suspected he was on his way to an asylum."

Not many years ago I was walking along the road from Inveran to Poolewe, and saw, as I thought (and rightly), a well-known politician fishing the river. His attendant was the water-bailiff, John Glas, who came up to speak to me about something or other. I asked him, "Who is that gentleman fishing?" He replied, "One Bright." I said, "The great John Bright, you mean?" His answer was, "I never heard of him, but he is a good fisher." Such is fame!

How many odd little incidents happen to the angler; they seem so extraordinary at the moment, but perhaps lose their effect by repetition. When a salmon is in good humour, or hungry, or irritated, or vicious, or whatever it may be, he will take any sort of fly. Having gone out one day to fish the Ewe without my fly book, I suddenly discovered the old fly I was fishing with had come to pieces; there was little left of it but the hackle, untwisted, and attached to the hook at one end. I shortened it to the length of the hook, and got a salmon with it at once.

What a pleasant incident it is, how flattering to one's self-esteem, when a friend who has toiled in vain all day begs you to try his rod, and you immediately get a salmon from a pool he has just fished! This has happened to me more than once, each occasion being a palpable fluke.

I remember hooking a very lively fish one day in May 1881 at the Middle Narrow; he jumped, he flashed hither and thither; he now had out almost the whole of my line, and in another instant was at my very feet. After a little of this sort of work, he got off; I was horrified when the line came slack, and in a bit of a tiff jerked the rod up, drew the line, and threw it again. At the moment the fly touched the water another fish took it, which I ultimately bagged. A friend standing by positively never noticed that I had parted company with the first fish!

Fishing a year later at the same Narrow, I felt a slight suction as my fly approached a well-known yellow stone in the water. I pulled the fly away, thinking it might be a fish. My gillie said he saw nothing. After a brief pause I began again, and again felt the slight suction at the same spot. My gillie had seen nothing, and assured me it was but the eddy round the stone that I had felt. However, I allowed the usual interval, and, instructing my attendant to place himself where he could command the best view, I re-commenced. The same suction, the same remark by the gillie. So without further pause I threw again, and this time hooked a good fish at the same stone, which, after a sharp struggle, I brought to bank. It was he who had been at me all the time.

On another occasion, after I had fished the New Cruive Pool, I was coming ashore from the stone I had stood upon, and carelessly left the line dangling in the water. On lifting the rod I found there was a fish on, and I soon grassed a fresh run grilse of 7 lbs.

How well I remember the February fish which my faithful attendant declared (wrongly) was a kelt, and the other one, really a kelt, which I landed above the Middle Narrow, marked and returned to the water, and caught again two days later in the Old Cruive, when he received quite a cordial greeting and a second benediction to help him further on his way down to the sea!

It was in the spring of 1883 that, fishing the Lower Narrow one afternoon, two fish, almost elbowing each other, came at my fly at the same moment, an incident that had never occurred to me before. I hooked one of them, but it proved to be a kelt; these kelts are greedy beasts.

A friend with me one day hooked a big fish in the New Cruive Pool; the fish ran and leaped for some minutes, and then went down. We alternately held on from eleven A.M. till five P.M., when a growing suspicion proved true that the fish had got the line fast under a stone, and had escaped.

I shall never forget the Rev. Gordon Calthorp, minutely cross-examining me at a lunch one day on the subject of salmon fishing, and, a day or two afterwards, during a church mission, using the information he had thus acquired to illustrate, in his telling way, the wiles of Satan. Of course, the successful angler represented the Evil One! I was meekly sitting near.

The present water-bailiff of the Ewe is John Mackenzie (Iain or John Glas), of Moss Bank, Poolewe. He is a silent man, but knows the river thoroughly. His predecessor was Sandy Urquhart, well remembered for his stupendous loquacity. He had many good stories,--one, of the "fine gentleman" who had a day on the Ewe, killed a salmon, and gave Sandy a five pound note (!); another, of a well-known Ewe angler, who, Sandy said, being annoyed by the long sulking of a fish, stripped and dived down to the hole where the salmon lay. He succeeded in pulling the fish from his lair, but also pulled the hook from the fish's mouth.

The Ewe is easy to fish. There are few trees or banks, and all the casts are accessible. Waders are not necessary, and a long cast is seldom required. There are convenient "toes" for many of the casts, though not always quite in the right places. A north-west or north wind is the best for the Narrows, as it rouses a useful ripple against the scarcely apparent stream. I have said nothing about rod and line; they should be light. It is no use the angler wearying himself with a heavy nineteen or twenty foot rod. A sixteen or seventeen foot rod is quite enough, remembering the elementary principle that the shortest line which will cover the water is the best. I never now use a gaff on the Ewe. It is quite unnecessary, as there are no steep banks. I never lost a fish for want of a gaff, but many I have hooked have got off during vain attempts to gaff them, even when the gaff has been wielded by an experienced hand. To gaff a kelt involves an almost certain breach of the law, for the kelt is nearly sure to die. To gaff a clean fish is to mar one of the most beautiful objects of sport. My plan is to draw the nose of the fish to the edge of the water, then lay down the rod, and instantaneously grasp the root of the tail firmly with one hand, whilst the other hand, under the head of the fish, assists to place it the next moment high and dry upon the bank. Dr Hamilton of Windermere has invented a spiked glove to be worn on the hand tailing the fish, but I see no need for it; and between the difficulty of putting it on at the right moment and the clumsiness that must accompany its use, I would rather be without it.

The number of salmon and grilse taken from the Ewe is insignificant as compared with the quantities captured in the bag-nets. The largest number I have ever known killed in one day was eight clean fish; this was in 1874. I never got more than five clean fish myself on the same day. Sir Kenneth Mackenzie once killed ten fish in a day on the Ewe,--his best bag. Mr O. H. Mackenzie of Inverewe about 1853 killed seven salmon in one day, and five the next day. He was only a boy at the time, and was not fishing long on either day. For a notice of the sport the late Sir Hector Mackenzie and others had in the Ewe many years ago see Appendix E.

Sir Hector had a singular mode of fishing. His son, Dr Mackenzie, writes:--"Few were better able to handle a rod than our father, and then there were no wading mackintoshes dreamed of to keep all dry. And as many pools in our river needed to be waded into or a boat to fish them rightly, wicked knowing old white Trig was ridden by my father into the pool, which thus was commanded by his rod all over it; and very soon Trig became quite interested in the sport, and the moment he saw a rush from a salmon or sea-trout, he backed slowly and steadily to the bank and let my father dismount and land the fish." This was on the river Conan.

The charms of the Ewe are manifold,--the wooded knolls on its upper reaches; the lovely peeps of the mountains of Loch Maree, and of the nearer range of Craig Tollie; the stories of the past that linger about its neighbourhood; the beauties of the river itself, replete with bird life and with wild flowers; and above all the exciting sport, are attractions which cannot fail to delight the angler, especially if he be successful. And there are pools in the Ewe that yield an occasional fish, even when the river is at its lowest. After August the fish are mostly dark in colour, though I have known a bright grilse bagged as late in the season as 11th September.

The other salmon rivers in Gairloch depend more on a good supply of water than the Ewe. They fish best in July if there be water. Each of them has had cruives at some time. They are all in private hands. For the benefit of any angler who, being a friend of the tenant of any of these rivers, obtains permission to fish, I may mention that the river running from Loch Clair to the head of Loch Maree, called the Garbh, is best fished from Kenlochewe, and is let with the Kenlochewe shootings; the Badachro river is let with the Shieldaig shootings; and the Kerry river is let with the Flowerdale shootings. The Little Gruinard river is not exclusively in one hand; the principal right to it is let with shootings.

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