48 FISHES. 



deep pools, or rather holes, black from their very 

 depth, and now rattles the pebbles over the 

 shallow bottom with a hoarse, but not unpleasing 

 music, — presents the prey that form his prizes. 

 The scenery is wild and magnificent. The lofty 

 mountain has to be climbed, often, it is true, with 

 weary feet ; but the air is fresh and invigorating, 

 every step, as he rises higher and higher, makes 

 him tread more proudly ; the heather is soft and 

 elastic, and its purple bloom is both beautiful and 

 fragrant ; and what a prospect does the summit 

 reveal! He looks abroad over many leagues of 

 country, all varied with hill and dale ; he sees 

 villages and towns, fields and woods, lakes and 

 winding rivers, spread out like a map at his 

 feet. Beneath, perhaps, he sees a yawning 

 chasm of a thousand feet, at the bottom of which 

 sleeps the unrufi^led tarn^ with waters as black as 

 ink to the beholder, yet of crystal clearness when 

 examined in a glass, in which the crimson Charr 

 play. The mountains, peak above peak, many of 

 them crowned with caps of snow, stretch away in 

 the distance, among which, like threads of bur- 

 nished silver, gleam the little rivulets which the 

 fly-fisher is seeking. 



The Salmon, the various species of Trout, some 

 of them little inferior in magnitude or strength 

 to that kingly fish ; the brilliant Grayling, with 

 his dorsal like a butterfly's wing, and the Charr, 

 with its refulgent sides, ** the aristocracy of the 

 flnny race," inhabit these elevated streams and 

 lakes ; and for these does the enterprising fly- 

 fisher visit the most remote and least accessible 

 parts of our country. When we reflect that the 

 first of these attains the weight of forty, fifty, 



