A BANAVIE FLEA.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2740, 20 November 1894, Page 3

A BANAVIE FLEA.

As a souvenir of Banavie, we may give the tourist the explanation of why a lobstor is known in the Highlands as a " Banavie Flea." A good many years ago an American was stopping at the Banavie Hotel, and he made himself particularly very obnoxious by his contemptuous remarks on Scottish scenery. " Ben Nevis ? " he said," do you call that a mountain ? You should see our mighty Rockies ! Loch Linnie Ido you call that a lake 1 You should see our Lake Superior ? Rannoch Moor ? do you call that a plain 1 You should see our Western prairies i " and so he went on, to the intense exasperation of the Highland waiter, who went and procured a live lobster, for they are caught occasionally in the loch, which he secreted, in requital of the insults, in the American's bed. Hardly had the American gone to sleep when the lobster caught him by the toe with a grasp like a vice. He jumped out of bed with a yell and rang for the boots. " Boots," he said solemnly rubbing his toe as he spoke, " you may not have such big mountains and big lakes and big plains here as we have in the States, but you have the most tarnation big fleas I ever experienced."—From Mountain, Moor, and Loch.