FISHING IN RIVER, STREAM, AND LOCH 169 



having his patience rewarded. There is no accounting 

 in any circumstances for the caprices of fish ; though 

 in a stream like this, meandering through wormy, 

 beetley, and fly-haunted meadow-land, their coyness is 

 not difficult to account for. But then, on the other 

 hand, they may waken up of a sudden to a voracity 

 that is at least equally inexplicable. Then the alder- 

 man-like fish will make a plunge at the line, with the 

 snap of a bull-dog and the greed of starvation ; and 

 though you must make hay while the sun shines or, 

 more strictly speaking, while it is not shining you 

 may fill your basket first. For after having played 

 and killed and lost, with a fair proportion of cases of 

 " hanging up " upon the willow-boughs, and breaking 

 the line on submerged snags, the clouds are rolled aside 

 in a burst of sunshine. Then it will be the wisdom of 

 the angler to adjourn for luncheon, subsequently flirt- 

 ing with the beauties of nature through the afternoon, 

 in anticipation of fresh successes in the evening. And 

 after a light and early breakfast, and with the appetite 

 for which you have been honestly toiling, the sight of 

 those speckled prizes of yours may be the best of sauces 

 for the meal ; though, for ourselves, we should care but 

 little to see them served at it, since low-country trout 

 are apt, both in savour and complexion, to remind one 

 unpleasantly of their native mud. 



It is very different with the firm-fleshed fish you take 

 from the chilly waters of lochs in the north, or from the 

 bright gravelly bottoms of the swift-rushing streams 

 fish that gladden alike the eye of the artist and the soul 



