I reached the lodge about 6.30. The stags weighed very nearly the same weight--16 st. 2 lb. and 16 st. 5 lb. clean--the royal being slightly heavier than the other. Our host returned about eight o’clock, having waited an hour past the time at which he had arranged to meet Stuart. The car was sent back for Stuart, who, however, did not reach the lodge until half-past ten, after a very long and strenuous day. He had, however, secured his fiftieth stag after a most troublesome stalk. He was not able to get his shot till past seven o’clock, at which time he was about seven miles from the lodge. So ended a most delightful week’s sport, notwithstanding the awful weather which we had had. [Illustration: (A Salmon Loch)] IX A SALMON LOCH IN SUTHERLAND Fishermen’s stories are said to be proverbially untrustworthy, and the great majority of people--at any rate of those who are not themselves fishermen--never seem to suppose that in the case of a fisherman, as in the case of every one else, truth may sometimes be stranger than fiction. I have been a fly-fisher since my earliest days, and have had many good days both with the salmon and the trout, but I have never had a day full of such surprising contrasts as the day which I had with a brother of mine many years ago in the early part of September, on a loch through which flows one of the best of the smaller salmon rivers in the North of Scotland. Strange as were the events of that day, I can vouch for the absolute veracity of the following story. The loch in question is not very large, and is not deep in any part. It contains a good many trout about three to the pound, and at certain periods of the year many salmon. We had a long drive from X., where we were staying, and reached the loch about 10 A.M. We had with us a gillie, a salmon-fisher of long experience and a typical Highlander, in height about 6 ft. 3 in., whose name, like his hair, was Sandy. We had not expected to have any salmon-fishing while we were at X., but fortunately I happened to have with me my salmon rod as well as a trout rod, and we arranged on this day that we would fish with the two rods alternately, and that as soon as one of us caught a salmon the other would take the salmon rod.