192 ANGLERS' EVENINGS. 



unfrequently for salmon, can be obtained for the preserved 

 sections of the river from the different proprietors. 



Kirkcudbrightshire also abounds with lochs, which 

 are more or less plentifully supplied with burn-trout and 

 other kinds of fish, and which are said to vary in weight 

 from a few ounces to several pounds. Permission to 

 angle in almost all of these lochs may be had on the 

 same conditions as on the rivers. 



Chapter \\.— IN ACTION. 



Into the glorious country described in the last chapter, 

 five ardent members of the Manchester Anglers' Associa- 

 tion resolved to make a raid. It was in the midst of the 

 hardest winter any of them remember that they first 

 began to lay their heads together and to concoct their 

 plans. They talked of journeying in April, and all 

 through the dreary winter months looked anxiously 

 forward to the happy days to come ; they took out their 

 rods, looked over their flies, and examined their lines a 

 hundred times during the dark days, and laid them by 

 on each occasion in solemn silence. At last April came, 

 but the winter had scarce begun to relax its hold on 

 nature, and eager as they were, they were loth to defer 

 their raiding for another month. Even when May, 

 " smiling May " appeared, a freezing east wind swept over 

 the earth with its biting breath ; the winter snow lay thick 

 on the hills, and lingered in the valleys ; the trees had 

 made no sign, no grass had begun to spring, and once more 



